Freddie Mac's Under the Radar Mortgage Plan Provokes Angst

Also, Powell indicates Basel rule takes priority over other regulatory agenda items

FHFA’s announcement, made without fanfare last month, went mostly unnoticed in Washington: Freddie Mac requested approval to start buying “closed-end second mortgages,” a loan that lets homeowners extract cash from the equity in their houses.  

But the news quickly resonated on Wall Street. A behemoth was suddenly aiming to insert itself into a hot corne…