Newsroom

June 29, 2016

FHFA eyes pushing more mortgage risk to private investors

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking public input on how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can shift more mortgage-market risk to private investors and, in turn, move more risk away from taxpayers.

NAFCU will issue a Regulatory Alert on this request for input. Comments are due to the FHFA by Aug. 29.

The government-sponsored enterprises, which buy home loans and package them into securities, have been experimenting with programs that give private investors a part of those deals since 2012. Since 2013, the companies have transferred about $30.6 billion in credit risk to outside interests.

FHFA on Wednesday also issued two documents on the GSEs' credit risk transfer programs. The first gives an overview of how the GSEs share credit risk with the private sector and the second lays out FHFA's request for input.

At the end of 2015, FHFA announced one of its 2016 goals for the GSEs is to reduce taxpayer risk through increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market.

NAFCU continues to urge the FHFA to ensure that any housing finance reform guarantees credit unions access to the secondary mortgage market and fair pricing based on loan quality rather than volume.