Federal Housing Finance Agency August 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to amend its rule on golden parachute payments to better align the rule with areas of FHFA's supervisory concern and reduce administrative and compliance burdens. The current rule requires FHFA review and consent before a regulated entity or the Office of Finance (OF) enters into an agreement to make, or makes, a payment that is contingent on the termination of an affiliated party, if the regulated entity or OF is in a troubled condition, in conservatorship or receivership, or insolvent. FHFA's experience implementing the rule indicates that the rule requires review of some agreements and payments where there is little risk of excess or abuse, and thus that it is too broad. If amended as proposed, the rule would focus on the types of agreements and payments that are of greater supervisory concern to FHFA. In general, these are payments to and agreements with executive officers, broad-based plans covering large numbers of employees (such as severance plans), and payments made to non-executive-officer employees who may have engaged in certain types of wrongdoing. The proposed amendments would also revise and clarify definitions, exemptions, and procedures to implement FHFA's supervisory approach. Where possible, FHFA would also align procedures and outcomes of review under the Golden Parachute Payment Rule with requirements of FHFA's rule on executive compensation. FHFA expects implementation of these changes would result in reduced administrative and compliance burdens.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is repealing two parts of the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) regulations, which define terms used in Finance Board regulations, and which describe the process by which the Finance Board conducted its monthly interest rate survey (MIRS). The repealed definitions are either obsolete or duplicate definitions that FHFA has previously adopted. The regulation relating to the MIRS has become outdated because it does not accurately describe the manner in which FHFA currently conducts the survey. Although FHFA intends to continue to conduct the MIRS in the same manner as it is doing presently, there is no need to carry over this provision into its own regulations. This final rule also repeals a number of subchapters of the Finance Board regulations that it had previously reserved, but which no longer serve any purpose because they include no regulatory text, corrects inaccurate cross-references in regulations described in this rulemaking, and amends a table to update information relating to information collections under the Paperwork Reduction Act.