The Federal Housing Finance Agency released the new 2016 housing scorecard, which outlines specific priorities for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their joint venture, Common Securitization Solutions.
The scored card is geared to further the goals outlined in the FHFA’s plan for the conservatorships of the Government Sponsored Enterprises, published in May 2014.
“The progress Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made in 2015 substantially advanced the goals set forth in our Conservatorship Strategic Plan and we expect to build on this progress in 2016,” said FHFA Director Melvin Watt.
“The new Scorecard will guide Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Common Securitization Solutions as they continue working to foster liquidity and access to credit for creditworthy borrowers in the national housing finance markets in a safe and sound manner,” said Watt.
Here are the goals that were outlines last year.
The scorecard is broken up into three main sections: maintain, reduce and build. These are some highlights for each section.
Maintain:
- Work to increase access to single-family mortgage credit for creditworthy borrowers, consistent with the full extent of applicable credit requirements and risk management practices.
- Develop post-crisis loss mitigation activities and prepare for the expiration of HAMP and HARP.
- Continue to responsibly reduce the number of severely-aged delinquent loans and real estate owned properties.
- Maintain the dollar volume of new multifamily business for each enterprise at $31 billion or below.
Reduce:
- Because the Enterprises’ single-family credit risk transfers have evolved into a core business practice, it is FHFA’s current expectation that single-family credit risk transfers will continue to be an ongoing conservatorship requirement. FHFA will adjust targets as necessary to reflect market conditions and economic considerations.
Build:
- The Common Securitization Platform and Single Security are significant, multiyear initiatives, and FHFA expects these inter-related projects to remain ongoing conservatorship priorities. FHFA expects the enterprises and Common Securitization Solutions to implement these initiatives on the following timeline:
- Release 1: In 2016, implement the CSP for Freddie Mac’s existing single- class securities; and
- Release 2: In 2018, implement the Single Security on the CSP for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“The FHFA should be commended for further laying the 'building blocks' of comprehensive housing finance reform. Ramping up risk sharing with the private sector reduces the burden on taxpayers and opening up the Common Securitization Platform will bring more private sector capital into the system. The agency alludes to improving its underwriting criteria; an excellent start would be the GSEs evaluating multiple credit scoring models,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee.
Most recently, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives that would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider alternative credit-scoring models beyond the FICO credit score the government-sponsored enterprises currently use when determining what loans to purchase.
The bill, which is entitled the “Credit Score Competition Act of 2015,” was introduced Royce and Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL.
