Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Weekly Brief: BoA Sued; SCOTUS Shortlists; Fund Fights Argentina
On June 25, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a directive ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare proposals for treating cryptocurrency held on U.S.-regulated exchanges as assets for reserves in...more
Fannie Mae (1938) and Freddie Mac (1970) were created with the end goal of promoting homeownership across the United States. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored entities (“GSEs”), are publicly traded and...more
On April 16, three senators urged the FHFA Inspector General to investigate the agency’s purported noncompliance with federal laws and regulations concerning corporate governance at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sens. Jack Reed...more
On April 15, ten U.S. Senators sent a letter addressed to Mr. Brian M. Tomney, Inspector General of the FHFA, requesting that the FHFA OIG review recent actions taken by FHFA leadership to overhaul the boards at Fannie Mae...more
In a significant policy shift under the Trump administration, the new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte issued an order on March 25, 2025 terminating special purpose credit programs (SPCPs) supported...more
On March 4, the FHFA ordered both government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to submit stress testing results based on their financial positions as of December 31, 2024, following scenarios issued by the...more
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week...more
On September 10, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Barr gave a speech (the Barr Speech) in which he outlined the principal changes to the federal banking agencies' 2023 proposal to implement the Basel Endgame (the...more
On April 18, Sandra L. Thompson, Director of the FHFA, addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, emphasizing FHFA’s role in promoting access to affordable housing for homebuyers and renters...more
The CFPB published a blog discussing a few key takeaways from a series of public hearings addressing appraisal bias....more
As we noted very briefly on Monday in our “Quick Take on a Sudden Change in the Banking Landscape,” among the various actions the government took Sunday evening to try to stabilize the banking market, the Federal Reserve...more
December 22, 2022- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation today issued a revised interagency statement to extend the...more
In This Issue. In a move that gives him the opportunity to put his stamp on housing policy and the potential overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, President Biden replaced the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency...more
Financial institutions should work with outside counsel to ensure that their internal policies and external actions minimize conduct that may violate state and Federal laws and regulations, and incentivize employees to reward...more
In the News. On the heels of a lawsuit challenging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) recently issued Madden fix/valid when made rule, eight state attorneys general filed suit challenging a similar rule...more
In the News. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to create a new category of “seasoned” qualified mortgages; the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of...more
On June 17, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed S8428/A10530 and S8243-C/A10351-B into law. Collectively, in relevant part, the legislation creates N.Y. Banking Law § 9-x, which relates to residential forbearances as a result...more
On April 16, 2020, Black Knight Inc., a leading provider of mortgage and lending analytics, reported that 5.5% or 2.9 million homeowners have entered into CARES Act Forbearance Plans. As of May 7, 2020, Black Knight Services...more
In this Issue: Senate Votes to Expand Paycheck Protection Program; FHFA (Finally) Addresses Liquidity Concerns for Mortgage Servicers. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation providing $484 billion in...more
As part of the federal government COVID-19 economic mitigation response, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) has announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer mortgage forbearance to multifamily property...more
On March 24, 2020, in response to the growing anticipation that renters in multifamily properties are being negatively impacted by the implications of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”), the Federal Housing Finance...more
The COVID-19 crisis has led to foreclosure moratoriums at the regulatory, executive, and judicial level. Servicers should consider that compliance with these, regardless of level, may not protect them from later challenges to...more
A&B Abstract: The Alston & Bird Consumer Finance team recognizes that this is a period of great uncertainty both for the nation and our clients....more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on March 18 that they have directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs), to...more
As previously reported, on March 18, 2020, the Federal Housing Finance Agency directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosures and evictions in connection with single-family mortgages for at least 60 days, and...more