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FHFA’s 2014 report to Congress

A look back at the agency's success

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released its 2014 report to Congress giving an update on what exactly went on at the agency that year.

According to the law, it must report to Congress on the agency’s plans to “continue to support and maintain the nation’s vital housing industry, while at the same time guaranteeing that the American taxpayer will not suffer unnecessary losses.”

In 2014, FHFA continued to serve as regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and as regulator of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks and the FHLBanks’ Office of Finance.

The new report, which can be found here, summarizes the findings of the agency’s 2014 examinations of the enterprises, the 12 FHLBanks and the FHLBanks’ Office of Finance.

The FHFA set three main goals for 2014:

  1. Maintain, in a safe and sound manner, foreclosure prevention activities and credit availability for new and refinanced mortgages to foster liquid, efficient, competitive, and resilient national housing finance markets;
  2. Reduce, taxpayer risk through increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market; and
  3. Build, a new single-family securitization infrastructure for use by the Enterprises and adaptable for use by other participants in the secondary market in the future.

One major feat for the FHAFA in 2014 is that settlements were reached in 11 of the remaining private-label securities lawsuits, resulting in the recovery of more than $10.3 billion on behalf of taxpayers. Settlement amounts resulted from consideration of various factors, including statutory calculations, number of securities, unique circumstances of each matter, and litigation risks.

This chart shows the amount of each settlement.

Click to enlarge

FHFA

Source: FHFA

This year included similar goals for Fannie and Freddie and expands on the same foundation of maintain, build and reduce.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made significant progress toward achieving the goals in FHFA’s Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships last year and we look forward to building on that progress in 2015,” FHFA Director Mel Watt said about the 2015 goals.

“These objectives will allow FHFA to work with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Common Securitization Solutions to build a strong, vibrant national housing finance market, which will create new homeownership and rental opportunities for existing and potential borrowers.”  

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