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

Section 1209 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) amended section 26 of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to permit any Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) to merge with another Bank with the approval of its board of directors, its members, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). This final rule establishes the conditions and procedures for the consideration and approval of voluntary Bank mergers.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to amend its community support regulation by requiring the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) to monitor and assess the eligibility of each Bank member for access to long-term advances through compliance with the regulation's Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) and first-time homebuyer standards. The proposed rule would also replace the current practice in which members submit to FHFA biennial community support statements containing their most recent CRA evaluations. Instead, the Banks would verify a member's CRA rating from publicly-available information from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) or the member's primary Federal banking regulatory agency. In addition, the Banks would be responsible for overseeing members' compliance with first-time homebuyer requirements.