WASHINGTON—The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has announced a strategic plan that seeks to provide a framework for how the agency will prepare the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – to be released from conservatorship.
The agency also released a scorecard that will be used to hold the GSEs accountable for implementing the strategic plan, NAFCU reported.
Last month, the White House released plans from Treasury and HUD that would release the GSEs from federal control, charter new guarantors to compete with the GSEs, strengthen single-family borrower programs, and more.
"Our nation's mortgage finance system is in urgent need of reform," said FHFA Director Mark Calabria in a statement. "The vision for reform articulated in the Strategic Plan and advanced in the Scorecard will serve borrowers and renters by preserving mortgage credit availability, protect taxpayers by ensuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can withstand an economic downturn, and support a strong and resilient secondary mortgage market."
Three Goals
In its analysis, NAFCU said the strategic plan is broken into three goals designed to ensure the GSEs:
- Focus on their core mission responsibilities to foster competitive, liquid, efficient, and resilient national housing finance markets that support sustainable homeownership and affordable rental housing
- Operate in a safe and sound manner appropriate for entities in conservatorship
- Prepare for their eventual exits from the conservatorships
Additionally, the scorecard includes a detailed summary of how the agency plans to address issues related to the duty to serve requirements, the Common Securitization Platform, credit risk transfer, implementation of the alternative credit score finale rule, and the LIBOR transition.
The FHFA also indicated that it plans to provide any requested assistance toward the creation of a new qualified mortgage (QM) standard.