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FHFA announces new public disclosure requirements for GSEs
On May 26, FHFA announced a final rule that amends the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework by introducing new public disclosure requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs). The final rule adds new quarterly quantitative and annual qualitative disclosures related to risk management, corporate governance, capital structure and capital requirements and buffers under the standardized approach. The final rule also aligns the GSEs’ disclosure requirements with many of the public disclosure requirements for large banking organizations under the regulatory capital framework adopted by banking regulators, and is intended to ensure the GSEs operate in a safe and sound manner “in particular during periods of financial stress.” “By allowing market participants to assess key information about the [GSEs] risk profiles and associated levels of capital, this final rule will promote transparency and encourage sound risk management practices at the [GSEs],” acting Director Sandra L. Thompson said.
Senate confirms Sandra Thompson as FHFA director
On May 25, the U.S. Senate voted along party lines to confirm Sandra L. Thompson as Director of the FHFA. Thompson has served as acting Director since June following the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision in Collins v. Yellen, which held that it was unconstitutional for FHFA’s leadership structure to allow the President to fire the FHFA director only for cause. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) According to President Biden’s nomination announcement, Thompson brings “over four decades of government experience in financial regulation, risk management, and consumer protection,” including previously serving as Deputy Director of FHFA’s Division of Housing Mission and Goals where she oversaw the agency’s housing and regulatory policy, capital policy, financial analysis, and fair lending space, as well as all mission activities for the GSEs and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Thompson also worked for more than 23 years at the FDIC where she served in a variety of leadership positions. Her most recent position at the FDIC was Director of the Division of Risk Management Supervision. Thompson also led the FDIC’s “examination and enforcement program for risk management and consumer protection at the height of the financial crisis” and “the FDIC’s outreach initiatives in response to a crisis of consumer confidence in the banking system.”
FHFA joins global green initiative
On May 11, FHFA announced its membership in the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System, affirming its “commitment to making tangible progress toward addressing the impact of climate change on the nation's housing finance system.” Recognizing the increased risks to property presented from climate change, FHFA acting Director Sandra L. Thompson advised FHFA-regulated entities last year to designate climate change as a priority concern and actively consider its effects in decision-making processes. NGFS is an international group comprised of central banks and financial supervisors working to enhance the role of the financial system in managing risks and mobilizing capital for green and low-carbon investments in the context of environmentally sustainable development. The Federal Reserve Board, OCC, and FDIC, and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office have already joined NGFS.
FHFA: SCIF mandatory for loans sold to GSEs
On May 3, FHFA announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) are requiring lenders to use the Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) as part of the application process for loans that will be sold to the GSEs. According to the announcement, the SCIF is intended to collect information on the borrower’s language preference, and on any homebuyer education or housing counseling that the borrower received, so that lenders can increase their understanding of borrowers’ needs throughout the home buying process. The changes will require lenders to present the SCIF questions to borrowers and to report any data collected from the SCIF to the GSEs purchasing the loan. Lenders will be required to adopt these changes and reporting requirements for loans with application dates on or after March 1, 2023. The announcement also noted that response by borrowers on the preferred language question in the SCIF will be voluntary. The SCIF will be available via Mortgage Translations later this summer.
Biden orders agency action on medical debt
On April 11, the Biden administration released a Fact Sheet regarding an initiative to decrease “malicious” and “predatory” billing and collection practices related to medical debts, including holding medical providers and debt collectors “accountable for harmful practices.” According to the Fact Sheet, the administration has ordered several agencies to take actions intended to “lessen the burden of medical debt and increase consumer protection.” The Fact Sheet provides “guidance to all agencies to eliminate medical debt as a factor for underwriting in credit programs,” and states, among other things, that the: (i) FHFA is reviewing the credit models that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac use; (ii) USDA is discontinuing “the inclusion of any recurring medical debts into borrower repayment calculations”; and (iii) VA is reviewing its underwriting guidelines to ensure it minimizes or eliminates medical debt reporting as a proxy for creditworthiness. Additionally, the Fact Sheet noted that the Department of Health and Human Services is requesting data from over 2,000 providers on medical bill collection practices, lawsuits against patients, financial assistance, financial product offerings, and third party contracting or debt buying practices. The Fact Sheet also noted that the CFPB “will investigate credit reporting companies and debt collectors” in regard to “patients’ and families’ rights,” which includes targeting “coercive credit reporting” and determining whether medical debts should be included in consumer credit reports.
FHFA suspends foreclosure for borrowers applying for HAF funds
On April 6, FHFA announced that servicers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to suspend foreclosure activities for up to 60 days if the servicer is notified that a borrower has applied for mortgage assistance under the Treasury Department’s Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF). As previously covered by InfoBytes, the HAF was created to provide direct assistance for mortgage payments, property insurance, utilities, and other housing-related costs to help prevent delinquencies, defaults, and foreclosures after January 21, 2020.
FHFA orders stress tests for Fannie and Freddie
On March 16, FHFA published orders applicable March 10 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) with respect to stress test reporting as of December 31, 2021, under Dodd-Frank as amended by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Under Dodd-Frank, certain federally regulated financial companies with total consolidated assets of more than $250 billion are required to conduct periodic stress tests to determine whether the companies have the capital necessary to absorb losses as a result of severely adverse economic conditions. The orders are accompanied by Summary Instructions and Guidance, which include stress test scenarios and revised templates (baseline, severely adverse, and variables and assumptions) for regulated companies to use when reporting the results of the stress tests (orders and instructions are available here). According to the Summary Instructions and Guidance, the GSEs have until May 20 to submit baseline and severely adverse results to FHFA and the Federal Reserve Board, and must publicly disclose a summary of severely adverse results between August 1 and 15.
5th Circuit remands shareholders’ net worth sweep claims to lower court
On March 4, a split U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, sent a shareholders’ suit back to the district court for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Collins v. Yellen, in which the Supreme Court, relying on its decision in Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, held that FHFA’s leadership structure was unconstitutional because it only allowed the president to fire the FHFA director for cause. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) In Collins, the Supreme Court reviewed the 5th Circuit’s en banc decision stemming from a 2016 lawsuit brought by a group of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) shareholders against the U.S. Treasury Department and FHFA, in which shareholders claimed that the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Recovery Act), which created the agency, violated the separation of powers principal because it only allowed the president to fire the FHFA director “for cause.” The shareholders also alleged that FHFA acted outside its statutory authority when it adopted a third amendment to the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements, which replaced a fixed-rate dividend formula with a variable one requiring the GSEs to pay quarterly dividends equal to their entire net worth minus a specified capital reserve amount to the Treasury Department (known as the “net worth sweep”). (Covered by InfoBytes here.) At the time, while the en banc appellate court reaffirmed its earlier decision that FHFA’s structure violated the Constitution’s separation of powers requirements, nine of the judges concluded that the appropriate remedy should be severance of the for-cause provision, not prospective relief invalidating the net worth sweep, stating that “the Shareholders’ ongoing injury, if indeed there is one, is remedied by a declaration that the ‘for cause’ restriction is declared removed. We go no further.”
The split Supreme Court had affirmed the 5th Circuit’s en banc decision regarding the FHFA’s structure, but left intact the net worth sweep and remanded the case to the appellate court to determine “what remedy, if any, the shareholders are entitled to receive on their constitutional claim.” Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote for the majority, stated that “[a]lthough the statute unconstitutionally limited the President’s authority to remove the confirmed Directors, there was no constitutional defect in the statutorily prescribed method of appointment to that office. As a result, there is no reason to regard any of the actions taken by the FHFA in relation to the third amendment as void.”
On remand, the en banc 5th Circuit majority ordered the district court to decide whether the shareholders suffered compensable harm from the unconstitutional removal provision, observing that the Supreme Court left open the possibility that the unconstitutional restriction on the President’s power to remove the FHFA director could have inflicted compensable harm. Noting that the Supreme Court had sketched “possible causes and consequences of such harm along with the Federal Defendants’ denial of any such harm,” the majority stressed that “it became clear” during oral argument that “the prudent course is to remand to the district court to fulfill the Supreme Court’s remand order.”
However, five of the appellate judges dissented from the majority decision on the grounds that nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision precluded the 5th Circuit from deciding the harm issue, pointing out that the appellate court could “easily do so in light of [its] previous conclusion that ‘the President, acting through the Secretary of the Treasury, could have stopped [the Net Worth Sweep] but did not.’” The dissenting judges noted that because the shareholders failed to point to sufficient facts to cast doubt on the 5th Circuit’s previous decision, the appellate court “should modify the district court’s judgment by granting declaratory relief in the Plaintiff’s favor, stating that the ‘for cause’ removal provision as to the Director of the FHFA is unconstitutional. In all other respects, we should affirm.”
FHFA finalizes enterprise regulatory capital framework
On February 25, FHFA announced a final rule, which amends the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework (ERCF) by refining the prescribed leverage buffer amount (leverage buffer) and risk-based capital treatment of retained credit risk transfer (CRT) exposures for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (collectively, GSEs). Among other things, the final rule: (i) replaces the fixed leverage buffer equal to 1.5 percent of a GSE's adjusted total assets with a dynamic leverage buffer equal to 50 percent of the GSE's stability capital buffer; (ii) replaces the prudential floor of 10 percent on the risk weight assigned to any retained CRT exposure with a prudential floor of 5 percent on the risk weight assigned to any retained CRT exposure; and (iii) removes the requirement that a GSE must apply an overall effectiveness adjustment to its retained CRT exposures in accordance with the ERCF’s securitization framework. Additionally, the final rule implements technical corrections to provisions of the ERCF that were published in December 2020. (Covered by InfoBytes here.) The ERCF amendments and technical corrections will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
FHFA re-proposes GSE seller/servicer eligibility requirements
On February 24, FHFA re-proposed updated eligibility standards that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (collectively, GSEs) mortgage sellers and servicers would have to meet. The updated proposed requirements are designed to provide transparency and consistency of capital and liquidity requirements for sellers and servicers with different business models, and would differentiate between the servicing of Ginnie Mae mortgages and GSE mortgages. FHFA noted that the updated proposed requirements, which reflect coordination with other federal agencies, also incorporate feedback from a January 2020 proposal (covered by InfoBytes here), as well as lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the updated proposed requirements, all GSE sellers and servicers (both depositories and non-depositories) would be required to maintain a tangible net worth requirement of $2.5 million, plus 35 basis points of the unpaid principal balance for Ginnie Mae servicing and 25 basis points of the unpaid principal balance for all other 1-to-4 unit residential loans serviced, including GSE loans. Current GSE sellers and servicers, as well as new applicants, will be required to comply with the updated proposed requirements by December 31, 2022, minus the exception that Capital and Liquidity Plan requirements must be submitted to the GSEs by December 31, 2023, and are due annually by the end of each year thereafter. Comments on the proposed changes are due in 60 days. FHFA stated it anticipates finalizing the updated proposed requirements in the second quarter of 2022, with most requirements taking effect six months after finalization.