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Activists Urge White House Not to Abandon GSE Reform

Obama Administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have warned in the last month that such a “recap and release” program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would put the GSEs at risk of another bailout; however, the GSEs’ Q3 earnings reports showed a $475 million net loss for Freddie Mac and a decline of more than 50 percent in Fannie Mae’s quarterly net income (from $4.6 billion in Q2 down to $2 billion in Q3), prompting their boss, FHFA Director Mel Watt, to declare that they may need a bailout anyway.

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Democratic Lawmakers Warn of Risks Posed by Repeal of Dodd-Frank Provision

The investigation conducted by the two lawmakers found that repealing Section 716 of Dodd-Frank allows banks to keep nearly $10 trillion in swaps trades on the books that would be “pushed out” to entities that are not insured with taxpayer funds, if not for the Dodd-Frank rollback. Section 716 was intended to prevent taxpayer bailouts of federally-insured banks with risky swap holdings.

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Economic Data Will Ultimately Determine When the Fed Will Raise Rates

On the side of the argument for exercising patience, Williams said there are two main concerns: One, the constraint of the “zero lower bound,” which is to say rates can’t go any lower than zero and there will not be room to lower the rates if there is another economic downturn or if inflation drops further; and two, the inflation has been “stubbornly” below the Fed’s target rate of 2 percent for almost three and a half years.

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Do Banks Wait Until Economic Downturns to Build Up Loan-Loss Reserves?

The authors noted that the typical scenario for economic downturns is for the number of problem loans to rise, along with loan-loss provisions. During the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, commonly known as the Great Recession, net charge-offs totaled more than $50 billion, a historically high level. Meanwhile, the provisions for loan and lease losses more than tripled from 2007 to 2008 at the onset of the recession—from less than $20 billion to more than $70 billion in just a year.

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OCC to Test Banks for TRID Compliance

The OCC provided guidance on what to expect in their forthcoming TRID compliance exams directed to “chief executive officers and compliance officers of national banks and federal savings associations, federal branches and agencies, department and division heads, all examining personnel, and other interested parties.”

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