Federal Housing Finance Agency July 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 require the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (together, the Enterprises), and the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks or Bank System) and the Bank System's Office of Finance (collectively, the regulated entities) to promote diversity and ensure the inclusion of minorities and women in all business and activities at all levels, including management, employment, and contracting. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing this final rule amending its regulations on minority and women inclusion (MWI) to clarify the scope of the regulated entities' obligation. The final rule requires the regulated entities to: Adopt strategic plans to promote the inclusion of minorities-, women-, and disabled individuals, and the businesses they own (MWDOB); amend their policies on equal employment opportunity (EEO) to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and status as a parent; and enhance the usefulness of information the regulated entities report to FHFA on their efforts to advance diversity and inclusion (D&I).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is issuing a proposed rule with request for comments on the housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) for 2018 through 2020. The Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (the Safety and Soundness Act) requires FHFA to establish annual housing goals for mortgages purchased by the Enterprises. The housing goals include separate categories for single- family and multifamily mortgages on housing that is affordable to low- income and very low-income families, among other categories. The existing housing goals for the Enterprises include benchmark levels for each housing goal through the end of 2017. This proposed rule would establish benchmark levels for each of the housing goals and subgoals for 2018 through 2020. In addition, the proposed rule would make a number of clarifying and conforming changes, including revisions to the requirements for the housing plan that an Enterprise may be required to submit in response to a failure to achieve one or more of the housing goals.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to adopt, with amendments, the regulations of the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) pertaining to the capital requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks). The proposed rule would carry over most of the existing regulations without material change, but would substantively revise the credit risk component of the risk-based capital requirement, as well as the limitations on extensions of unsecured credit. The principal revisions to those provisions would remove requirements that the Banks calculate credit risk capital charges and unsecured credit limits based on ratings issued by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO), and would instead require that the Banks use their own internal rating methodology. The proposed rule also would revise the percentages used in the tables to calculate the credit risk capital charges for advances and non-mortgage assets. FHFA would retain the percentages used in the existing table to calculate the capital charges for mortgage-related assets, but intends to address the appropriate methodology for determining the credit risk capital charges for residential mortgage assets as part of a subsequent rulemaking.