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NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger met Monday with Ginnie Mae Acting President Michael Bright to discuss housing finance issues and credit unions' participation in Ginnie Mae programs, and to share the association's core principles for reform. NAFCU remains engaged with lawmakers and agency officials to ensure credit unions' priorities are reflected in plans as the Trump administration works on housing finance reform.

Bright joined Ginnie Mae July 2017 as executive vice president and chief operating officer; he is awaiting Senate confirmation to serve as president. Bright has also served as a senior financial policy advisor to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and helped draft a GSE reform bill introduced by Corker and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in 2013.

Treasury Department Counselor Craig Phillips recently said the administration is working on housing finance reform and plans to build on recommendations released in June. NAFCU has called on the administration to work with Congress to develop a comprehensive solution to reforming the housing finance system.

Legislatively, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., in September released a housing finance reform discussion draft that would transform Ginnie Mae's role in the housing finance market, as well as preserve a NAFCU-sought government guarantee to the secondary mortgage market and create more lending opportunities for small lenders.

In addition, following the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) release of housing finance reform objectives to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee earlier this year, Senate Banking members Corker and Warner released draft legislation. The proposal outlines new roles for Ginnie Mae and the FHFA, while establishing conditions for transition from a GSE model, to one with multiple guarantors and guaranteed access for small lenders.

In addition to Bright, NAFCU has met with Phillips, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Chief Economist for Vice President Mike Pence Mark Calabria, FHFA Director Mel Watt, and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and key lawmakers to achieve credit unions' housing finance priorities.

NAFCU Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt, Vice President of Research and Chief Economist Curt Long, and Senior Regulatory Affairs Counsel Ann Kossachev also attended Monday's meeting.