Newsroom

NAFCU and several other financial services industry trades will meet with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today to discuss its proposed housing goals for the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs). NAFCU recommended that credit unions be included in the proposal, specifically for small member participation and affordable housing loans.

As currently written, the proposal excludes credit unions from the new small member participation housing goal.

"NAFCU is optimistic that the FHFA did not intend to exclude credit unions as 5,185 credit unions, or 95 percent of the credit union industry, have assets under $1.173 billion," said NAFCU Director of Regulatory Affairs Ann Kossachev, highlighting how many credit unions fall under the proposed asset cap for small member participation. "NAFCU strongly urges the FHFA to clarify that this proposed new housing goal does not exclude credit unions.

"If the FHFA did intend to exclude credit unions from this new housing goal, then NAFCU must vehemently oppose this portion of the rule," she added.

The proposed rule would also:

• set a single prospective mortgage purchase housing goal as a share of each FHLB's total purchases under the acquired member assets (AMA) program;
• set a new small member participation housing goal for participation by small institutions;
• eliminate the volume threshold and instead allow FHLBs to propose different goals levels for mortgage purchases and small member participation, subject to FHFA approval; and
• simplify and expand the eligibility criteria to enable federally backed loans to count for goals purposes.

Read more of NAFCU's recommendations for the housing goals proposal here.