U.S. federal agency that regulates and oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, setting housing finance policy and standards.
FHFA gave VantageScore pricing parity with FICO classic, but 5% to 6% of loans in its market use it, per industry data Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyzed. MBA's Bob Broeksmit says the choice cuts borrower costs, while William Raveis Mortgage will stay on FICO until forced.
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FICO will cut about 15% of its staff, roughly 570 jobs, and book $27 million in charges, mostly severance, to fold AI into its products. The cut comes weeks after housing regulators moved to loosen FICO's grip on mortgage scoring, and the timing makes it as much a cost defence as an AI story.
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Pennymac is adding VantageScore 4.0 to all three of its lending channels, so the three largest US mortgage originators now all use the score. The next fight is whether FHFA lets the agencies drop from three credit reports per loan to two.
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FHFA data compiled by Wolf Street put 49.1% of US mortgages below 4% in the second quarter, while market rates run above 7%. With life-event selling nearly halted, the supply of existing homes stays thin until mortgage rates fall.
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Fed inspector general Michael Horowitz found no crime in the $2.5 billion headquarters renovation and blamed poor project management for its cost. His report moves the argument from Powell's testimony to the budget controls the Fed never put in place.
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The bank's researchers say the scores Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generate inside automated underwriting predict 90-plus-day delinquency at 24 months better than the measures pulled at application. Investors mostly see them in securities disclosures.
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A study of more than 2,100 US cities and counties finds reported surpluses shrinking through legal accounting choices after property values rose, on a sample that begins in 2005 and stops in 2013. The finding is an association.
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William Pulte directed Fannie Mae to copy Freddie Mac and let servicers phone borrowers whose homes have appreciated. KBW's Bose George expects modest uptake and says the released capital goes to buybacks.
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Cook rates 21 Republican-held House seats as toss-ups against five Democratic ones. In the Senate, Democrats need four net gains out of six toss-ups. Only that chamber decides whether financial regulators get confirmed.
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H.R.10230 would restore the NCUA's lapsed authority over third-party vendors and extend similar power over the institutions the FHFA regulates. The Defense Credit Union Council says the scope is drawn too wide. No hearing date is on the record.
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Roughly half of refinances surface a title defect that somebody has to clear, and the premium a waiver removes is the money that pays for the clearing, which leaves lenders, servicers and homeowners holding an uninsured contingency.
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Cook's response makes intent the whole question. Whether "for cause" carries fraud's intent requirement decides how reachable a Fed governor's vote is, and rates desks hold that answer.
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