Housing finance reform

The plan would end the GSE conservatorships and create an explicit federal guarantee, but it's unclear if even other parts of the Trump administration support it.

The groups applauded a proposal to establish minimum GSE capital requirements, but called for more immediate steps to release the companies from conservatorship.

Risk management and technology systems at the Federal Housing Administration lag decades behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and desperately need to be revamped, according to a top official at HUD.

No plan will be implemented as long as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain in conservatorship, but a capital framework for the companies could still have a substantive impact.

The agency proposed new minimum capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would only go into effect if the government ends its conservatorships.

In the continued absence of legislation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator announced work on a new capital framework.

President Trump has nominated Michael Bright, the current acting president and chief operating officer of Ginnie Mae, to head the agency full time.

The Treasury secretary has said that he doesn't see changes to the housing finance system happening this year, but he's hopeful something can be done after the elections.

The Treasury secretary said reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will come into focus more in 2019, when Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt’s term will end.

As policymakers take another crack at housing finance reform, federal leaders and the housing lobby are once again perpetuating the false notion that ending government guarantees would cause the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage to vanish.