Federal Housing Finance Agency 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule establishes requirements and procedures for the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) Suspended Counterparty Program. Under the Suspended Counterparty Program, FHFA may issue suspension orders directing the regulated entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the eleven Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks)) to cease doing business with an individual or institution, and any affiliate thereof, for a specified period of time where such party has committed fraud or other financial misconduct involving a mortgage transaction. The final rule revises the interim final rule published on October 23, 2013. The final rule excludes from the types of covered transactions that would be subject to a final suspension order any transaction involving a residential mortgage loan if the loan is secured by the respondent's own personal or household residence. The final rule provides more time than the interim final regulation provided for the regulated entities to submit reports to FHFA when they become aware that any individual or institution, and any affiliate thereof, with which they do business, has committed fraud or other financial misconduct involving a mortgage transaction. The final rule also simplifies the standard for issuing suspension orders by eliminating the requirement that FHFA demonstrate that the regulated entity has done business with the individual or institution within the past three years. Finally, the final rule clarifies the method of issuing notices of proposed suspension orders with respect to affiliates.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing amendments to the existing Acquired Member Assets (AMA) regulation, which applies to the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks). In particular, FHFA proposes to remove from the regulation requirements based on ratings issued by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organization (NRSRO), as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). Additionally, FHFA proposes to transfer the AMA regulation from the former Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) regulations to FHFA's regulations. FHFA also proposes to reorganize the current regulation and to modify and clarify a number of provisions in the regulation.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (each an ``Agency'' and, collectively, the ``Agencies'') are adopting and invite comment on an interim final rule that will exempt certain non-cleared swaps and non- cleared security-based swaps with certain counterparties that qualify for an exception or exemption from clearing from the initial and variation margin requirements promulgated under sections 731 and 764 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Dodd-Frank Act'' or the ``Act''). This interim final rule implements Title III of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (``TRIPRA''), which exempts from the Agencies' swap margin rules non-cleared swaps and non-cleared security-based swaps in which a counterparty qualifies for an exemption or exception from clearing under the Dodd-Frank Act. This interim final rule is a companion rule to the final rules adopted by the Agencies to implement section 731 and 764 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is amending its regulations by relocating and consolidating certain regulations of its predecessor agenciesthe Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)that pertain to the responsibilities of boards of directors, corporate practices, and corporate governance matters. The OFHEO regulations addressed corporate governance matters at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, the Enterprises), while the Finance Board regulations addressed the powers and responsibilities of the boards of directors and management of the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks). The final rule consolidates most of those regulations into a new FHFA regulation, parts of which will apply to both the Banks and the Enterprises (together, regulated entities), and parts of which will apply only to the Banks or only to the Enterprises. Most of the content of the new regulations has been derived from the regulations of the predecessor agencies, with such modifications as are necessary to apply the regulations to all of the regulated entities, to respond to issues raised by the commenters, or to clarify the regulatory text. The final rule also amends the Prudential Management and Operations Standards (Prudential Standards) provisions by designating certain introductory languagewhich pertains to the general responsibilities of senior management and boards of directorsas a separate Prudential Standard. The final rule also repeals a provision of the OFHEO regulations that related to minimum safety and soundness requirements for the Enterprises.

On May 27, 2015, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) published a Notice and Request for Input (Notice) describing a method for assessing the national average single-family house price for use in adjusting the maximum conforming loan limits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the ``Enterprises''). The Notice responded to section 1322 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.) (``Safety and Soundness Act'') which required FHFA to ``establish and maintain a method of assessing the national average 1-family house price for use in adjusting the conforming loan limitations.'' The Notice indicated that FHFA intends to use its existing ``expanded-data'' house price index (HPI) for such purpose and invited public feedback. In line with the proposal in the original Notice, after reviewing the public feedback, FHFA has decided to use the expanded-data HPI for annual loan-limit adjustment. Specifically, FHFA will use the seasonally adjusted, expanded-data HPI for the United States.

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is submitting the information collection entitled ``Advances to Housing Associates'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval of a three year extension of OMB control number 2590-0001, which is due to expire on September 30, 2015.

In this document, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) provides notice that it issued Orders dated June 10, 2015, with respect to reporting under section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing a final rule amending its community support regulation to streamline and simplify the administrative process requirements under the regulation. The amendments will not affect the substantive requirements of the regulation, which include FHFA review and assessment of applicable members of the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) every two years, or change the criteria for determining member compliance with the community support standards and eligibility for access to long-term Bank advances. The amendments will replace the current process of selecting one-eighth of all applicable members for eight quarterly reviews by FHFA over a two-year review cycle, with a new process of FHFA reviewing all applicable members at the same time every two years.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is adopting a final rule to amend its regulation on minority and women inclusion by requiring the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance to include in the contents of their annual reports certain demographic information related to their boards of directors as well as a description of their related outreach activities during the reporting year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is announcing the Federal Home Loan Bank (Bank) members it has selected for the 2014-2015 Review Cycle5th Round under FHFA's community support requirements regulation. This Notice also prescribes the deadline by which Bank members selected for this review cycle must submit Community Support Statements to FHFA.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has adjusted the cap on average total assets that defines a ``Community Financial Institution'' to $1,123,000,000, based on the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) as published by the Department of Labor (DOL). These changes took effect on January 1, 2015.