National Mortgage News, Sept. 11, 2018–Hannah Lang (subscription)Housing finance reform is still likely years away, but two major hurdles may already be cleared. A key sticking point in earlier attempts to overhaul the system was whether it will still have government backing. A related question also creeping up at times: What agency will be the source of that backing?
Category: Top National News
The Government May Want to Buy Your Dying Mall
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2018–Esther Fung (subscription)These municipalities, concerned that vacated retail centers will blight the landscape and drag down surrounding property values, have been buying up malls they fear are being starved of capital by the private sector.
CFPB Trying to Jump Start Trial Disclosures
Mortgage Daily, Sept. 10, 2018A policy change is being proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is intended to jump start the use of trial disclosure programs.
In Reg Relief Just as with Dodd-Frank, Spotlight’s Trained on Fed
American Banker, Sept. 10, 2018–Neil Haggerty (subscription)The Federal Reserve Board commanded much attention after passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act for the agency’s expanded authority to supervise big banks. The spotlight is again shining on the central bank as regulators implement a new law to ease regulatory burden.
US Mortgage Sees Opportunity in Down HECM Market
HousingWire, Sept. 10, 2018–Jessica GuerinThe lender has been largely focused on traditional purchase loans, but now it’s throwing some weight into growing its reverse mortgage channel.
A Legacy of the Financial Crisis? The Makings of the Next One
Washington Post, Sept. 7, 2018–Roger LowensteinIn a happier world, we would be celebrating the bank bailouts of 10 years ago. They stopped a scary downward spiral, averted a longer-lasting depression and quickly led to a recovery that endures today. Instead, the bailouts poisoned American politics, specifically by destroying the then-moderate center of the Democratic Party and shifting the base of the Republican Party into the netherworld of conspiracist paranoia.
A Decade After the Financial Crisis, Many Americans are Still Struggling to Recover
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 9, 2018–Jim PuzzangheraAmid the chaos caused by Lehman’s collapse, the big banks got hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts. Aggressive stimulus efforts by Washington officials injected trillions of dollars more into the financial markets and the economy, helping to end the recession, trigger record bank profits and fuel a historic stock market boom. But there were no big bailouts for lower- or middle-income Americans.
The Financial Crisis Made Us Afraid of Risk-For a While
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 8, 2018–Greg Ip (subscription)Ten years ago this month, the failure of Lehman Brothers exposed how cavalier the world had been towards risk. Households had bought homes they thought could never go down in price, banks had made loans they thought would never default and repackaged them into securities to make them seem riskless and governments, convinced depressions were a thing of the past, had stood by.
Private-Label RMBS on Track to Set Post-Crisis Record
National Mortgage News, Sept. 6, 2018–Bonnie Sinnock (subscription)Dollar volume of private-label residential mortgage-backed securities issuance this year is the highest it has been since the Great Recession, despite a decline in new originations, said Fitch Ratings.
Decade after Housing Crash, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Uncle Sam’s Cash Cows
CNBC, Sept. 6, 2018–Diana OlickWhile most agree the status quo can’t remain the status quo forever, no one wants to see a shock to the mortgage system and a reversal of this decade of repair. (MBA mention)