Newsroom
Next steps for housing finance reform focus of Senate hearing
The Senate Banking Committee's hearing Tuesday focused on housing finance reform efforts revealed a commitment to ensuring credit unions' access to the secondary mortgage market. NAFCU has consistently shared with lawmakers, the administration and other stakeholders the importance of preserving this access.
“Congress, as well as the Administration, must work hand-in-hand to protect taxpayers and the safety and soundness of the housing finance system,” said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. “First and foremost, a legislative solution is necessary and crucial to ensuring credit unions receive guaranteed access to the secondary mortgage market and fair pricing for their paper, and we appreciate the Senate Banking Committee’s commitment to these key issues. Also, the committee’s focus on allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to rebuild their private capital reserves is a positive development as private capital can be used to shield American taxpayers from risk, place the GSEs on solid financial footing, and help stabilize them for the long-term.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria provided testimony to the committee on the issue. The Trump administration last week released plans from Treasury and HUD to reform the housing finance system.
During opening remarks, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, stressed the importance of a level playing field and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said reforms need to focus on increasing services for underserved borrowers.
Mnuchin provided the committee with a detailed overview of the Treasury's plan and said the department prefers to work with Congress to enact comprehensive housing finance reform. He also discussed the issue of providing a government backing for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages.
When asked how community banks and credit unions would be impacted by the proposed reforms Mnuchin said Treasury "will absolutely make sure they did not fare worse. We want them to be treated fairly; that is a very big part of any future plan.” Carson added that these institutions are key to housing finance reform, noting "their ability particularly to provide education to people about housing financial management is essential.” Calabria also said FHFA would work to eliminate volume discounts for large lenders to ensure equal pricing.
Ahead of the hearing, NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler reiterated the association's housing finance reform principles. Calabria and Brown are set to address attendees today at NAFCU's Congressional Caucus.
Share This
Related Resources
Add to Calendar 2024-06-26 14:00:00 2024-06-26 14:00:00 Gallagher Executive Compensation and Benefits Survey About the Webinar The webinar will share trends in executive pay increases, annual bonuses, and nonqualified benefit plans. Learn how to use the data charts as well as make this data actionable in order to improve your retention strategy. You’ll hear directly from the survey project manager on how to maximize the data points to gain a competitive edge in the market. Key findings on: Total compensation by asset size Nonqualified benefit plans Bonus targets and metrics Prerequisites Demographics Board expenses Watch On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Gallagher Executive Compensation and Benefits Survey
preferred partner
Gallagher
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-06-21 09:00:00 2024-06-21 09:00:00 2024 Mid-Year Fraud Review Listen On: Key Takeaways: [01:16] Check fraud continues to be rampant across the country. Card fraud is affecting everyone. [04:31] Counterfeit US passport cards are just another new toolbox in the bad actors’ toolbox. [07:21] Blocking the fallback is the only way to defeat counterfeit cards. [11:17] The best way is constant education to your members in as many channels as you can. [13:02] We are still seeing overdraft lawsuits. Make sure the programming you have at your credit union matches what you have displayed for the members. Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
2024 Mid-Year Fraud Review
Strategy & Growth, Consumer Lending
preferred partner
Allied Solutions
Podcast
Add to Calendar 2024-06-21 09:00:00 2024-06-21 09:00:00 The Evolving Role of the CISO in Credit Unions Listen On: Key Takeaways: [01:30] Being able to properly implement risk management decisions, especially in the cyber age we live in, is incredibly important so CISOs have a lot of challenges here. [02:27] Having a leader who can really communicate cyber risks and understand how ready that institution is to deal with cyber events is incredibly important. [05:36] We need to be talking about risk openly. We need to be documenting and really understanding what remediating risk looks like and how you do that strategically. [16:38] Governance, risk, compliance, and adherence to regulatory controls are all being looked at much more closely. You are also seeing other technology that is coming into the fold directly responsible for helping CISOs navigate those waters. [18:28] The reaction from the governing bodies is directly related to the needs of the position. They’re trying to help make sure that we are positioned in a way that gets us the most possibility of success, maturing our postures and protecting the institutions. Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
The Evolving Role of the CISO in Credit Unions
preferred partner
DefenseStorm
Podcast
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.