Newsroom

July 14, 2014

New housing finance bill in House

July 14, 2014 – A housing finance reform bill from Democratic Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut, John Delaney of Maryland and John Carney of Maryland would broaden Ginnie Mae's role and use the current government-sponsored enterprises serve as aggregators for small lenders.

The bill would require that all government-guaranteed, single-family and multi-family mortgage-backed securities be supported by a minimum of 5 percent private-sector capital, which would stand in a first-loss position. The other 95 percent of the risk would be shared by Ginnie Mae and a private reinsurer.

Under the bill, Ginnie Mae would study and design two types of programs and implement the more efficient one to carry out the stated risk-sharing principles. The two types of programs are already laid out – a reinsurance bid model and a guarantor model.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks would serve as aggregators for small lenders that don't have the volume needed to pool and create securities on their own. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be wound down over five years.

NAFCU is working to ensure any final housing finance reform package provides small institutions equal, competitive access to the secondary mortgage market fair pricing based on loan underwriting quality, not volume.