Federal Housing Finance Agency April 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, Board, FDIC, Commission, FHFA, and HUD (the Agencies) are proposing rules to implement the credit risk retention requirements of section 15G of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78o- 11), as added by section 941 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 15G generally requires the securitizer of asset-backed securities to retain not less than five percent of the credit risk of the assets collateralizing the asset-backed securities. Section 15G includes a variety of exemptions from these requirements, including an exemption for asset-backed securities that are collateralized exclusively by residential mortgages that qualify as ``qualified residential mortgages,'' as such term is defined by the Agencies by rule.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is re-organizing and re-adopting existing Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) regulations dealing with consolidated obligations (COs), as well as related regulations addressing other authorized Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) liabilities and book-entry procedures for COs, as new part 1270 of the FHFA regulations. The final rule amends these regulations to reflect statutory amendments made to section 11(c) of the Federal Home Bank Act (Bank Act) with regard to the issuance of COs. Otherwise, FHFA is re-adopting most of the regulatory provisions addressed in this rulemaking without substantive change.