Federal Housing Finance Board December 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or agency) is adopting a final rule to implement section 1116 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). Section 1116 of HERA requires FHFA, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) to promote diversity and the inclusion of women and minorities in all activities. The final rule implements the provisions of section 1116 of HERA that apply to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Banks.

Section 1211 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to expand the types of eligible collateral that community financial institution (CFI) members may pledge to secure Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) advances to include secured loans for community development activities and to allow Banks to make long term advances to CFI members for purposes of financing community development activities. Section 1211 further provides that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) shall define the term ``community development activities'' by regulation. To implement these provisions, FHFA is amending the advances regulation to allow CFI members to pledge community development loans as collateral for advances and is adopting a definition of ``community development'' as proposed. The final rule also will transfer the advances and new business activities rules from parts 950 and 980 of the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) regulations, to new parts 1266 and 1272 of the FHFA regulations, respectively, and make other conforming amendments. Finally, the final rule will make a change to the advances regulation to incorporate a long-standing policy previously established by the FHFB that secured lending to a member of any Bank is an advance that must meet the requirements of the advances regulation. The final rule language has been clarified to assure that certain types of transactions, such as derivatives, will not be considered secured lending for the purposes of this provision. The new provision addressing secured lending does not include a prohibition on secured transactions with affiliates of members, as was initially proposed.