Federal Housing Finance Board 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This proposed rule would implement section 1202 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), which amended section 7(i) of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) by repealing the statutory caps on the annual compensation that can be paid to Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) directors. The proposed rule would allow each Bank to pay its directors reasonable compensation and expenses, subject to the authority of the Director (Director) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to object to, and to prohibit prospectively, compensation and/or expenses that the Director determines are not reasonable.

Governed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) regulations, the Federal Home Loan Bank System's (System) Office of Finance (OF), issues debt (``consolidated obligations'') on which the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) are jointly and severally liable and publishes combined financial reports on the Banks. The OF is governed by a board of directors, the composition and functions of which are determined by FHFA's regulations. The FHFA's experience with the System and with the OF's combined financial reports during the recent period of market stress suggests that the OF and the System could benefit from a reconstituted and strengthened board. Consequently, the FHFA published a proposed regulation for comment on August 4, 2009, which was intended to achieve that end. The proposal had a comment period of 60 days, but the FHFA has decided to extend the comment period an additional 30 days.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing a Record Retention regulation. The proposed regulation would set forth record retention requirements with respect to the record management programs of the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the Office of Finance consistent with the safety and soundness authority of FHFA under the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, as amended.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing a regulation providing the procedures and guidelines under which it will implement the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended. The proposed regulation describes the policies and procedures whereby individuals may obtain notification of whether an FHFA system of records contains information about the individual and, if so, how to access or amend a record under the Privacy Act. Upon adoption of this regulation the Privacy Act regulations of the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, will be removed.

On January 15, 2009, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) published a final rule implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This technical rulemaking will delete the FOIA rules promulgated by the FHFA's predecessor agencies, the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). It also will remove now obsolete references in the FHFA rule to the FHFB and OFHEO.