Regulatory reform

With policymakers focused on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship, their regulator is reorganizing key units and adding staff to position itself for the long term.

With policymakers focused on ending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s conservatorship, their regulator is reorganizing key units and adding staff to position itself for the long term.

The regulator said the investment bank and financial services company will help in the process of strengthening Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s capital standing for their eventual exit from conservatorship.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

The new regulation aims to standardize the process for determining if those owning less than a quarter of a bank must comply with holding company requirements.

In another rollback of the bank trading ban, the federal agencies unveiled a plan to allow financial institutions to invest in multiple companies through certain fund structures.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he was “comfortable” with a recent speech by Gov. Lael Brainard objecting to significant aspects of the Community Reinvestment Act plan proposed by the OCC and FDIC.

Most stakeholders agree that the Community Reinvestment Act needs to be updated, but a congressional hearing featuring the regulator leading the overhaul effort showed just how contentious the process has become.

The Financial Services Committee will also hold hearings next month on monetary policy, the CFPB and "astroturfing" worries, among other things.

An outside paper identifies the statutes, regulations and other bureaucratic realities complicating the banking agencies’ efforts to oversee and benefit from rapidly changing technology.