April 27, 2017
Community Bankers and GSE Reform
The Independent Community Bankers of America have release ICBA Principles for GSE Reform and a Way Forward. Although this paper is not as well thought-out as that of the Mortgage Bankers Association, it is worth a look in order to understand what drives community bankers.
The paper states that the smaller community banks
depend on the GSEs for direct access to the secondary market without having to sell their loans through a larger financial institution that competes with them. The GSEs help support the community bank business model of good local service by allowing them to retain the servicing on the loans they sell, which helps keep delinquencies and foreclosures low. And unlike other private investors or aggregators, the GSEs have a mandate to serve all markets at all times. This they have done, in contrast to some private investors and aggregators that severely curtailed their business in smaller and economically distressed markets, leaving those community bank sellers to find other outlets for their loan sales. (1)
The ICBA sets forth a set of principles to guide GSE reform, including
- The GSEs must be allowed to rebuild their capital buffers.
- Lenders should have competitive, equal, direct access on a single-
loan basis. - Capital, liquidity, and reliability are essential.
- Credit risk transfers must meet targeted economic returns.
- An explicit government guarantee on GSE MBS is needed.
- The TBA market for GSE MBS must be preserved.
- Strong oversight from a single regulator will promote sound operation.
- Originators must have the option to retain servicing, and servicing fees must be reasonable.
- Complexity should not force consolidation.
- GSE assets must not be sold or transferred to the private market.
- The purpose and activities of the GSEs should be appropriately limited.
- GSE shareholder rights must be upheld.
This paper does not really provide a path forward for GSE reform, but it does clearly state the needs of community bankers. That is valuable in itself. There is also a lot of common sense behind the principles they espouse. But it is a pretty conservative document, working from the premise that the current system is pretty good so if it ain’t broke, why fix it? I think other stakeholders believe the system is way more broke than community bankers believe it to be.
There are also some puzzlers in it this paper. Why the focus on GSE shareholder rights? Is it because many community banks held GSE stock before the financial crisis? Are there other reasons that this is one of their main principles?
Hopefully, over time community bankers will flesh out the thinking that went into this paper in order to fuel an informed debate on the future of the housing finance market.
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