Fannie, Freddie overhaul bill jells

2 senators ready for others’ input

Congress still has a long way to go before resolving the most significant overhang that remains from the 2008 financial crisis. But a consensus is emerging around principles for overhauling Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the U.S. mortgagefinance system.

Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have been working on a bill for months, and they intend to start sharing ideas and legislative text with other senators and the administration of President Donald Trump in the coming weeks, said people familiar with the matter. Their plan would preserve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but take steps to make it easier for investors or other companies to create competitors, the sources said. The two lawmakers want to introduce a bill by early next year.

Such a move would begin what’s sure to be a drawn out and contentious process to address one of the most critical components of the U.S. economy. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide the grease for the housing market by guaranteeing nearly $5 trillion in mortgage bonds. Revamping the companies will likely have broad implications for consumers’ borrowing costs and the availability of home loans.

“Reforming our nation’s housing finance system is the last major piece of unfinished business of the financial crisis,” Corker said in a Wednesday statement. “We are engaged in productive discussions with our colleagues, the administration, and a number of stakeholders on the best path forward.”

Preferred shares of Fannie Mae, short for the Federal

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National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac, which is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., jumped after Bloomberg reported on Corker and Warner’s progress.

The new effort comes as a key Republican lawmaker, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, says he’s open to a government guarantee on some mortgage bonds. In a speech at an event in Washington, Hensarling said he still didn’t like the government having wide involvement in mortgage bonds but grasps the political reality that reform probably would not progress without one. That move from Hensarling, who previously disavowed any government guarantee, could make some Democrats more open to proceeding with an overhaul.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government in 2008 and eventually received $187.5 billion in bailout money after the housing market cratered. Lawmakers and regulators initially said the companies’ futures would be resolved quickly, but instead they have been stuck in government control for more than nine years.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a central component of the U.S. mortgage market, buying loans from lenders, wrapping them into securities and making guarantees to investors in case borrowers default. That process frees up cash for lenders to make more mortgages.

Before the crisis, in part because the companies were chartered by the federal government, investors believed the

bonds they issued carried an “implied” government guarantee if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves went under.

Many lawmakers derided that situation, asserting that the system meant that private Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac investors made money in good times, while the government had to bail them out in bad times. Many of the revamp plans that have been released since have sought to address that concern, though none has gotten enough traction to become law.

The proposal from Corker and Warner would attempt to address that central quandary. It would put an explicit guarantee from the federal government on mortgage bonds issued under the new system, provided by Ginnie Mae for a fee. Ginnie, which is the government-owned Government National Mortgage Association, already provides such a guarantee for mortgage bonds containing loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration and other agencies.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and any new competitors would be required to have enough capital to pass stress tests, similar to what the government mandates for big banks. The companies also would be encouraged to offload some of the risk they take on to private investors, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac already do to some extent. Behind that backstop would be yet another layer of protection: a new government fund, meant to protect taxpayers in the event of a mortgagefinance company failing.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican, a few other senators and some members of the Trump administration

have been kept abreast of the broad strokes of what Corker and Warner are working on.

Corker in an interview said that the goal of his and Warner’s plan will be to keep rates and the mortgage system unchanged for borrowers while increasing taxpayer protection and competition in the secondary-mortgage market.

Under the proposal, preferred shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be made whole or close to it, depending on the final outlines of the transition, the sources said. But common shareholders may not fare as well, they said. Whether and how shareholders get compensated in the transition to the new system is still an open question. Investors in the companies include several prominent hedge funds.

Some classes of Fannie Mae preferred shares surged as much as 40 percent, and classes of Freddie Mac preferred stock jumped as much 43 percent.

This isn’t the first time Corker and Warner have tried to deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A few years ago, the pair helped write legislation that would have wound down the companies and replaced them with an entirely new system. That bill foundered after opposition from some affordable-housing advocates and small lenders.

“One of the lessons I learned from the last CorkerWarner effort was that our proposal was too complex, and didn’t do enough on affordability,” Warner said in a statement. “So what we’re looking for now is a viable simplified approach that protects the taxpayer, preserves the 30-year fixed mortgage, and includes robust access and affordability provisions.”

The new plan would require Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the other guarantors to offer small lenders access to the mortgage system on equal terms to large lenders, the sources said. Corker and Warner are attempting to work with affordable-housing advocates and more progressive senators to ensure mortgages are available to low-income borrowers, they said.