Federal Housing Finance Agency 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing a final regulation that will govern the portfolio holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (collectively, the Enterprises) during the pendency of the conservatorships. The final regulation adopts FHFA's interim final rule on portfolio holdings, without change. See 74 FR 5609, January 30, 2009. That interim rule adopted the portfolio limits specified in each Enterprise's Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (PSPA) with the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) as the regulation limits. Specifically, it provides that each Enterprise comply with the portfolio limits contained in the respective PSPAs, as they may be amended from time to time. The interim regulation also stipulated that the regulation is to be in effect until amended or the Enterprises are no longer subject to the PSPAs.

Section 1205 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) by adding a new section 10C(a) that requires the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish housing goals with respect to the Federal Home Loan Banks' (Banks) purchase of mortgages, if any. Section 10C(b) provides that the Banks' housing goals are to be consistent with the housing goals established by FHFA for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises) under sections 1331 through 1334 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act), as amended by HERA, taking into consideration the unique mission and ownership structure of the Banks. To implement section 10C, FHFA is adopting a final rule that is substantially the same as the proposed rule published by FHFA for notice and comment. The final rule establishes three single-family owner-occupied purchase money mortgage goals and one single-family refinancing mortgage goal applicable to the Banks' purchases of single- family owner-occupied mortgages, if any, under their Acquired Member Assets (AMA) programs, consistent with the single-family housing goals for the Enterprises. A Bank will be subject to the housing goals if its AMA-approved mortgage purchases in a given year exceed a volume threshold of $2.5 billion.

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.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing an interim final rule with request for comments on Debt Collection. The interim final rule sets forth procedures for use by FHFA in collecting debts owed to the Federal Government. Agencies are required by law to issue a regulation on their debt collection procedures. The interim final rule includes procedures for collection of debts through salary offset, administrative offset, tax refund offset, and administrative wage garnishment. FHFA requests comments on the interim final rule.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency review, revisions to the information collection, ``Survey of FHLBank Economic Development Programs,'' OMB No. 2590-0010. Specifically, FHFA requests review of the use of surveys at an agency-sponsored conference being held October 25-26, 2010. The surveys will be used for open-forum discussions at the conference, and will be distributed prior to the conference with the intent that they will help to initiate and focus the discussions. The surveys are part of the collection of information that was previously submitted for emergency review and subsequently approved on August 19, 2010, under OMB No. 2590-0010, in connection with open-forum discussions that were held in August and September, 2010. Since that approval, one of the surveys has been substantively revised for its use in October, therefore FHFA is requesting emergency review of these revisions, in addition to the general use of the surveys in October. This revision did not result in a change in burden. The collection of information is due to expire April 30, 2011. To allow interested persons to comment on this information collection, FHFA is publishing this notice and plans to submit a request for a three-year extension of OMB's approval. Comments regarding this information collection should be addressed to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of OMB, Attention: Desk Officer for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: 202-395-6974, E-mail: OIRA_ Submission@omb.eop.gov. Please also submit comments to FHFA using any one of the following methods and include ``Comments: Survey of FHLBank Economic Development Programs, No. 2010-N-16'' as the subject: E-mail: RegComments@fhfa.gov; Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. U.S. Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fourth Floor, 1700 G Street, NW., Washington, DC 20552. We will post all public comments we receive without change, including any personal information you provide, such as your name and address, on the FHFA Web site at https://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will be available for examination by the public on business days between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fourth Floor, 1700 G Street, NW., Washington, DC 20552. To make an appointment to inspect comments, please call the Office of General Counsel at 202-414-6924.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing a final regulation that establishes procedures for the submission and consideration of applications for awards of fees and other expenses by prevailing parties in adjudications against FHFA.

Section 1128(b) of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) to provide for the establishment, monitoring and enforcement of new housing goals effective for 2010 and 2011 for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises). Section 1332(a) of the Safety and Soundness Act, as amended by HERA, requires the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish three single-family owner- occupied purchase money mortgage goals and one single-family refinancing mortgage goal. Section 1333(a) of the Safety and Soundness Act requires FHFA to establish one multifamily special affordable housing goal, as well as providing for a multifamily special affordable housing subgoal. This final rule establishes new housing goals for 2010 and 2011, consistent with the Safety and Soundness Act, as amended. The final rule also revises and updates the rules for counting mortgages for purposes of the housing goals to ensure clarity and consistency with the new goals. In addition, the final rule includes provisions regarding reporting requirements and book-entry procedures.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (Privacy Act), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) gives notice of a proposed Privacy Act system of records to replace a system of records issued by FHFA's predecessor agency, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) which was abolished July 30, 2009, and to fulfill FHFA's statutory requirement to collect the records. Upon the effective date of this notice, system OFHEO-07, ``Mortgage Fraud System'' published at 71 FR 6085 on February 6, 2006 will be deleted.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is publishing a final regulation, with the concurrence of the Office of Government Ethics, which supplements the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. To ensure a comprehensive and

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) solicits written comment on a proposed rule to implement the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amendments to the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) and the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) pertaining to the civil enforcement powers of FHFA, and the Rules of Practice and Procedure for enforcement proceedings. The Safety and Soundness Act, as amended by sections 1151-1158 of HERA, authorizes FHFA to initiate enforcement proceedings against the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (together, the Enterprises) and the Federal Home Loan Banks (the Banks) (collectively, the regulated entities), and entity-affiliated parties as defined in the Safety and Soundness Act. When final, the rule will replace the existing Rules of Practice and Procedure promulgated by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) and the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) formerly charged with overseeing the regulated entities. The proposed rule may provide FHFA personnel, the regulated entities, entity-affiliated parties, and other interested parties with the clear guidance necessary to prepare for and participate in the administrative enforcement action process to increase the efficiency and transparency of FHFA's administrative enforcement hearings.

Section 1323(a)(1) of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act), as amended, requires the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to make available to the public the non-proprietary single-family and multifamily loan-level mortgage data elements submitted to FHFA by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises) in their mortgage reports required under their charter acts. This responsibility to maintain a public use database (PUDB) for such mortgage data was transferred to FHFA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) pursuant to sections 1122, 1126 and 1127 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), and was expanded to include data elements required to be reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA).

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comments concerning the information collection known as ``Capital Requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks,'' which has been assigned control number 2590-0002 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA will submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due to expire on July 31, 2010.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is revising the proposed system of records notice that was published in the Federal Register May 10, 2010, at 75 FR 25856. The system of records is ``Compensation Information Provided by the Regulated Entities'' (FHFA- 4), which will contain compensation-related information on entities regulated by FHFA.

Section 1205 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) by adding a new section 10C(a) that requires the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish housing goals with respect to the Federal Home Loan Banks' (Banks) purchase of mortgages, if any. Section 10C(b) provides that the Banks' housing goals are to be consistent with the housing goals established by FHFA for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises) under sections 1331 through 1334 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act), as amended by HERA, taking into consideration the unique mission and ownership structure of the Banks. Section 10C(c) further provides that, to facilitate an orderly transition, the Director shall establish interim target housing goals for the Banks for a transition period extending through 2010. Section 10C(d) also extends the monitoring and enforcement requirements of section 1336 of the Safety and Soundness Act to the Banks in the same manner and to the same extent as those requirements apply to the Enterprises.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comments concerning a currently approved information collection ``Monthly Survey of Rates and Terms on Conventional 1-Family Non-Farm Mortgage Loans,'' known as the Monthly Interest Rate Survey or MIRS. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) assigned MIRS control number 2590-0004, which is due to expire on September 30, 2010. FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval for a three-year extension of the control number.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to re- organize and re-adopt existing investment regulations that apply to the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and that were previously adopted by the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) as new part 1267 of the FHFA's regulations. FHFA is also proposing to incorporate into the new part 1267 limits on the Banks' investment in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and certain asset-backed securities (ABS) that are now set forth in the Financial Management Policy (FMP) that had been issued by the Finance Board. If the proposed rule is adopted in its current form, FHFA expects to terminate the FMP as of the effective date of the new rule.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing and seeking comment on a proposed regulation, with the concurrence of the Office of Government Ethics, which would supplement the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. To ensure a

In this rulemaking, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is adopting a final rule that implements two separate proposed rules, which relate to Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) director elections and director compensation, respectively. As to director elections, FHFA is amending its regulations relating to the process by which successor Bank directors are chosen after a directorship is redesignated to a new state prior to the end of the term as a result of the annual designation of Bank directorships. Under the final rule, the redesignation causes the original directorship to terminate and creates a new directorship that will be filled by an election of the members.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comments concerning the information collection known as ``Capital Requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks,'' which has been assigned control number 2590-0002 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due to expire on July 31, 2010.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing notice and opportunity for the public to comment on this proposed rule on minority and women inclusion. Section 1116 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 amended section 1319A of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, requiring FHFA, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and the Federal Home Loan Banks to promote diversity and the inclusion of women and minorities in all activities. Consequently, FHFA published a proposed rule for comment on January 11, 2010, which was intended to achieve that end. The proposal had a comment period of 60 days, but FHFA has decided to extend the comment period an additional 45 days.

Section 1128(b) of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) to provide for the establishment, monitoring and enforcement of new affordable housing goals effective for 2010 and 2011 for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises). Section 1332(a) of the Safety and Soundness Act, as amended by HERA, requires the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to establish three single-family owner- occupied purchase money mortgage goals and a single-family refinancing mortgage goal. Section 1333(a) of the Safety and Soundness Act requires FHFA to establish a multifamily special affordable housing goal, as well as providing for a multifamily special affordable housing subgoal. FHFA is issuing and seeking comments on a proposed rule that would establish new affordable housing goals for 2010 and 2011, consistent with the Safety and Soundness Act, as amended. The proposed rule would also revise and update the rules for counting mortgages for purposes of the affordable housing goals to ensure clarity and consistency with the new goals.

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. Consequently, FHFA is proposing to amend the advances regulations to allow CFI members to pledge secured loans for community development activities as eligible collateral for advances, to provide that CFI members may use long term advances to fund community development activities and to define ``community development,'' ``community development loan,'' and other related terms necessary to implement these provisions. The proposal would also transfer the advances and new business activities regulations from the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) regulations to the FHFA regulations, and make other conforming amendments. Finally, the proposed rule would also make a change to the advances regulation which would incorporate a long-standing policy previously established by the FHFB that any form of secured lending by a Bank to a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank System (Bank System) is deemed to be an advance. The proposed rule would extend that policy to cover secured lending transactions by a Bank to affiliates of members.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing a final regulation that requires the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and each Federal Home Loan Bank (collectively, regulated entities) to submit a timely report to FHFA upon discovery that it has purchased or sold a fraudulent loan or financial instrument, or suspects a possible fraud relating to the purchase or sale of any loan or financial instrument. The final regulation also requires the regulated entities to establish and maintain internal controls, policies, procedures, and operational training programs to ensure that any fraudulent loan or financial instrument or possible fraudulent loan or financial instrument is discovered and reported.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is amending its membership regulations to implement provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) that authorized community development financial institutions (CDFIs) that have been certified by the CDFI Fund of the U.S. Treasury Department (CDFI Fund) to become members of a Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank). The newly-eligible CDFIs include community development loan funds, venture capital funds, and State-chartered credit unions without Federal insurance. This final rule sets out the eligibility and procedural requirements that will enable CDFIs to become members of a Bank and relocates part 925 in its entirety to part 1263. FHFA also is amending its community support regulations to provide that certified CDFIs may be presumed to be in compliance with the statutory community support requirements by virtue of their certification by the CDFI Fund and relocates part 944 in its entirety to part 1290.