Daily Dose

A new survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco finds investors aren't buying in to the central bank's projections of interest rate increases in the coming years. The San Francisco Fed's report comes one week before the FOMC announces its next economic policy move—and before Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to give her own hints at the central bank's timeline.

In survey findings released Monday, Better Homes and Gardens found that the current generation of teenagers—dubbed "Generation Z"—already values homeownership as the cornerstone of the American Dream, with 82 percent of teens surveyed saying it is the most important factor. Looking to their future, 97 percent of those surveyed said they believe they will own a home.

Federal regulators announced last week they have finalized a rule with regards to the "liquidity coverage ratio" (LCR) of large financial institutions. The final rule is nearly identical to the rule that was originally proposed with a few changes based on public comments.

A bill proposed to dissolve the GSEs and replace them with a limited government backstop could cut direct spending by $60 billion over the next 10 years, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Under S. 1217, the new system of guaranteeing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) would mean less risk for the government, therefore costing the government less money.

The Conference Board released Monday its Employment Trends Index (ETI) for August, reporting a slight increase from July to a reading of 121.29. "The strong increase in the Employment Trends Index in recent months signals robust job growth through the fall," said Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at the Conference Board, adding that August's lower-than-expected employment numbers "seem to be a one-month deviation from a stronger trend."

Profits at independent mortgage banks nationwide jumped from the first quarter to the second as loan production spiked, according to a trend report from business advisory firm Richey May & Co. "Independent mortgage bankers' unit volume, expenses and margins were very close to those they experienced in the third quarter of 2013," said Keith May, managing director of advisory services at Richey May.

Despite economic strides made in the last few months, Fannie Mae's latest survey found Americans' outlook toward housing deteriorated again in August, "[suggesting] that housing activity may resume its modest recovery in 2015 after some pullback last year," analysts said. "The August National Housing Survey results lend support to our forecast that 2015 will likely not be a breakout year for housing," said Doug Duncan, SVP and chief economist at Fannie Mae.

Following the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) recent request for input on its proposal for a single security for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Urban Institute expressed support for the idea but concern that FHFA may be unnecessarily slow in implementing such a plan.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced this week that it has published final guidelines for large financial institutions regarding the strengthening of governance and risk management practices for those institutions. Covered institutions will now be required to control and manage risk-taking activities by following a written risk governance framework under the new guidelines, OCC announced.

According to a quarterly report from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), institutions last quarter reported $673.9 billion in outstanding loan balances, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2013—the largest annual growth since the first quarter of 2006, the group reported.