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Brad Thaler |
March 6, 2013 – NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler on Tuesday urged lawmakers anew on the importance of retaining a housing finance system that ensures credit unions continued access to the secondary market and liquidity for mortgage loans.
Writing in advance of a House subcommittee hearing today on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Thaler submitted anew the association’s core principles for housing reform to ensure credit unions are treated fairly throughout any reform process. Among them:
- A healthy and viable secondary market must be maintained.
- There should be at least two government-sponsored enterprises to effectuate competition in the secondary market and ensure equitable access for credit unions. The GSEs should perform the essential functions now performed by Fannie and Freddie.
- The U.S. government should issue explicit guarantees on the payment of principal and interest on mortgage-backed securities.
- During any transition from Fannie and Freddie to a new system, credit unions should retain uninterrupted access to the GSEs and, in turn, the secondary market.
These and other core principles are detailed in a letter Thaler sent Tuesday to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and GSEs. The subcommittee, with Reps. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., as its chairman and ranking member, holds a hearing on the role of the two GSEs on the financial crisis.