Ginnie Mae has taken steps to help make financing for
"We need to have something permanently in place for that kind of an event for the future," President Alanna McCargo told attendees at a Housing Finance Strategies conference on Wednesday. "That is something that we are very laser-focused on."
McCargo sees the risks that Ginnie needs to address growing, which is why — in addition to establishing a permanent liquidity facility like the pandemic-era pass-through assistance program — it's
Nonbanks need more oversight because the role they have increasingly played in the servicing and financing of government loans has
"The most important thing to us at Ginnie Mae given this increased size is that [issuers] are successful, that they are healthy, and then that they have access to liquidity in all times through all economic cycles, because the people that would be hurt by them being hurt are very vulnerable populations," McCargo said, referring to the low to moderate income borrowers that the government lending system serves, many of whom come from the Black and Hispanic communities with disproportionately low homeownership rates.
She expressed concern about current monetary policy and the possibility of
"Right now this sector has a lot of risks that we need to be addressing and looking at," McCargo said. An established liquidity facility, in tandem with the new counterparty standards, could help the market get out in front of them, she added.
While the liquidity facility Ginnie stood up during the pandemic
"It ended up not even being needed because we had monetary policy that took rates down, and refinances really helped save the day," she said. "We are not likely to see that in a future incident."