The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) headlined a letter delivered to the White House’s National Economic Council on Wednesday outlining three “near-term administrative actions” the association says would directly lower costs for mortgage borrowers without legislation.
“The mortgage market is increasingly governed by overlapping, highly complex regulations that have driven up mortgage costs, making it significantly more expensive to originate and service a mortgage,” reads the letter, which is also signed by the financial services trade organizations America’s Credit Unions and the Independent Community Bankers of America.
The trade groups recommend the Trump administration end tri-merge credit reporting requirements for Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-eligible loans, reduce mortgage insurance premiums for government mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, and reduce loan-level price adjustments on Fannie and Freddie loans while eliminating those risk-based fees on rate-and-term refinances for borrowers with strong payment histories.
Get these articles in your inbox
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Get these articles in your inbox
Sign up for our daily newsletter
The letter notes that other long-term policy proposals for reforming regulations governing mortgage origination and servicing remain in play. However, the trade groups said, these short-term proposals represent achievable goals for the administration, which has made a point of promising to deliver robust housing reforms.
Proposals floated by the administration — such as 50-year mortgage terms, restrictions on the sale of single-family homes to large investors and short-term purchases of mortgage bonds by Fannie and Freddie to push down mortgage rates — have appeared half-hearted, and one year into President Donald Trump’s second term no housing agenda has emerged.
“These recommendations represent the aligned views of our organizations to advance housing affordability and are not intended to represent an exhaustive list of policy actions the Administration should take,” the letter concluded.



