Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson, who quietly announced her pending resignation earlier this month, will leave a legacy of a responsiveness to affordability concerns the mortgage business hopes will continue in some form with the new administration in Washington.
Bob Broeksmit, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, called Thompson “a trusted industry partner and strong advocate of expanding access to mortgage credit and affordable rental housing for homeowners and renters during her tenure as FHFA director.”
“MBA will continue its work with the incoming FHFA leadership and staff on policies and programs that boost housing supply and promote sustainable and affordable homeownership and rental housing,” he added.
FHFA confirmed Thompson will leave on Jan 19 as the changeover to the Trump administration gets underway. Bloomberg reported the news. FHFA did not immediately have information on a succession plan and said Thompson was not immediately available for comment.
While previous transitions in administrations from one party to another have resulted in some rollbacks in each other’s policies, and President Trump’s team is considered likely to resume his first-term efforts to end conservatorship in ways that could redefine FHFA’s role.
Thompson has urged a slow approach to a conservatorship exit, recently taking steps to encourage one.
The departing FHFA chief was known for meeting personally with industry groups of all sizes, particularly smaller subsets of the industry that work directly with borrowers, to get a handle on frontline issues they faced.
Brendan McKay, head of policy at the Broker Action Coalition, recounted being able to arrange a videoconference meeting directly with Thompson within a short period of time to discuss concerns the group had about income requirements for an affordability program being too low.
Later, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for which FHFA serves as regulator and conservator, increased the income requirements for the program, albeit not to the extent the coalition had asked for, McKay said.
David Dworkin, president and CEO of the National Housing Conference, credited Thompson for being one of the “most responsive” regulators in Washington and laying the groundwork for new thinking about the mission of the influential mortgage investors she oversaw.
While the next administration may redefine the context and contours of the unprecedented affordability initiatives she established, some of the operational discipline could remain, he said, noting she herself treated her predecessors’ work like this in some cases.
Thompson knew the guardrails around operational risk well given her earlier experience serving as a director at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for more than two decades between August 1990 and January 2013, Dworkin said. This period included the Great Financial Crisis’ housing crash.
Her experience furthered accomplishments at FHFA that included instituting several types of noteworthy reforms, such as the institution of equitable housing plans and changes at the Federal Home Loan Banks in efforts she’s continued to work on as she closes out her time at the agency.
“We commend Director Thompson and the FHFA team for its contributions on numerous issues, including permanent loss mitigation reforms to help struggling borrowers, lowering the fee on commingled securities and other pricing framework updates, and policy changes that have helped ensure high-quality underwriting and an improved rep and warranty framework,” Broeksmit said.
Thompson did face some opposition to some of her pricing moves from Republicans and some industry groups, who felt they disadvantaged borrowers with stronger credit. It was an allegation she pushed back against, calling it a misunderstanding of the changes she made in line with pre-existing policy.
