The author is Don Layton, Senior Industry Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and the CEO of Freddie Mac from May 2012 until June 2019.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae securitize mortgages they purchase from bank and non-bank lenders. In doing so they sell the complex interest rate risk of those mortgages to bond market investors, but historically retained 100% of the associated credit risk.

December saw a strong improvement in the national delinquency rate (down 3.75% from November and more than 12% from last year). At 3.40%, 2019 ended with the delinquency rate within 0.04% of the record low set back in May.

Howard Bancorp., the parent company of Maryland’s Howard Bank, announced plans to close down its mortgage lending operations.