Housing Finance System Reform

SIFMA provides comments to the U.S. Treasury Department on housing finance system reform. SIFMA argued the necessity of focusing on the resolution of the current status of the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).  SIFMA’s GSE task remark, (1) how policymakers need to determine what is required from the mortgage markets before addressing what to do with the GSEs; (2) the importance of GSEs for the developing of the U.S. mortgage markets including the To-Be-Announced (TBA) market; (3a) how it will be necessary a government guarantee on mortgage backed securities (MBS) to maintain liquidity in the TBA MBS market, and (3b) how a government insurance wrap of the MBS as a catastrophic backstop, may an efficient mechanism; (4)  the necessity of preserving simplicity and homogeneity of the GSE MBS markets to maintain the liquidity provided by the TBA markets; and (5) how the government should state intentions with respect to legacy GSE issues prior to and during any transition.