WASHINGTON—The Senate Banking Committee is being urged to ensure credit unions' access to the secondary mortgage market in any housing finance reform legislation it considers.
Carrie Hunt, NAFCU executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel, wrote the committee in response to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) recently released objectives to reform the housing finance system. The objectives include a recommendation for a single government-guaranteed mortgage-backed security, echoing a key part of NAFCU's core principles for housing finance reform, Hunt said.
The letter sent to Senate Banking Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH) outlines other reform efforts NAFCU supports, including:
- Creating a level playing field in terms of fair pricing based on loan quality instead of loan volume
- A legislative solution to the government-sponsored enterprises' conservatorships
- Continuing to implement the Common Securitization Platform and Single Security
- Reducing systemic risk and protecting taxpayers through credit risk transfer transactions
Bloomberg released a draft of housing finance reform legislation being worked on by Senate Banking members Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA). The proposed legislation outlines new roles for Ginnie Mae and the FHFA, while establishing conditions for transition from a GSE model, to one with multiple guarantors and guaranteed access for small lenders.