Edward DeMarco and Rep. Melvin Watt

President Barack Obama is expected to tap a North Carolina congressman to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CNBC reported.

Rep. Melvin Watt, a Democrat and senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, was integral to passing Dodd-Frank, the financial regulatory overhaul enacted in 2010. [more]

Edward DeMarco

The controversial regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is urging lawmakers to drastically scale back or even eliminate the mortgage market’s reliance on taxpayers, Bloomberg News reported.

Edward DeMarco is making his push to privatize Fannie and Freddie less than a week after a bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill to keep the Obama administration from selling off shares in the government-backed lending giants without congressional approval. [more]

Edward DeMarco

The government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are abandoning their separate systems for securitizing home loans and are forming a joint company that could be up and running as soon as next year, NBC News reported.

The consolidation is intended to help reduce the government’s role in the mortgage market, according to its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and will regulate the new company as well…. [more]

Rep. Elijah Cummings and Edward DeMarco

A group of 45 members of the U.S. House of Representatives came together today to sign a letter urging president Obama to appoint a permanent leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who will make aiding distressed homeowners a priority, according to the Huffington Post. [more]

From left: FHFA head Edward DeMarco, the White House

The White House is preparing to nominate a new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as early as next year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The FHFA’s current director, Edward DeMarco, was appointed more than three years ago in an interim capacity after the Obama Administration’s first nominee, Joseph Smith Jr., withdrew from consideration following opposition from Senate Republicans, the Journal said. The FHFA was created four-and-a-half years ago and has never had its own director confirmed by the Senate. The director of the FHFA is a key policymaker because of the agency’s role as the gatekeeper of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [more]

Edward DeMarco, Federal Housing Finance Agency director

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a new plan Monday to guide banks through the lending process in a way that minimizes financial institutions’ risk of being forced to buy back bad mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Since the housing market’s collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have forced banks to repurchase $75 billion worth of distressed mortgages. Banks’ are fearful of finding themselves in similar situations, and that has resulted in a tight lending environment. [more]

Edward DeMarco, acting head of the FHFA

In the wake of the Federal Housing Finance Administration’s firm stance that it will not allow principal reductions for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers, the Obama administration is now looking for new ways to encourage the use of unspent federal housing funds to ease borrowers’ financial pains, Bloomberg News reported.

Some states are using money from the Hardest Hit Fund, a $7.6 billion national aid program which has so far only spent $351 million of its funds, Bloomberg News said, to give debt relief to Fannie and Freddie borrowers. The difference with the money provided by Hardest Hit is that it is provided at no cost to the government sponsored entities, according to Bloomberg. [more]

Mortgage writedowns, if approved by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, could save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to $1.7 billion, Bloomberg News reported.

Edward DeMarco, the FHFA head, said his agency would decide “in the next few weeks,” if it would allow Fannie and Freddie to perform the mortgage modifications. DeMarco is hesitating, because he does not want to create an incentive for lenders to default, he said in a speech yesterday at the non-profit the Brookings Institution. [more]

From left: the White House and Edward DeMarco, head of the FHFA

Democrats’ efforts to reduce mortgage principals for hundreds of thousands of borrowers are stymied by one man, ProPublica claimed: Edward DeMarco, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. [more]

From left: Fannie Mae CEO Michael Williams and Freddie Mac CEO Ed Haldeman

A dozen housing executives are about to take a massive paycut.

The Associated Press reported that the salaries of the top 70 employees at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be limited to $500,000 per year and bonuses will be eliminated. In 2009 and 2010 the top 12 executives at the government-sponsored enterprises collectively earned $35.4 million in bonuses and salary, with Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Edward Haldeman receiving $9.3 million and $7.8 million, respectively, for the two-year stretch. [more]