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Oct. 31, 2013 – NAFCU lobbyists are at a Senate Banking Committee hearing today that focuses on elements of a government guarantee for mortgage-backed securities.

The hearing, "Housing Finance Reform: Essential Elements of a Government Guarantee for Mortgage-Backed Securities," will include testimony from the executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, the director of securitized assets at AllianceBernstein, and an economics professor from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.

Today's hearing follows several others held earlier this week in the Senate and House on housing finance reform issues.

On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee, in a hearing titled "Housing Finance Reform: Essentials of a Functioning Housing Finance System for Consumers," received testimony from representatives from the Center for Responsible Lending, Genworth Financial, Inc., K & L Gates LLP, the National Association of Realtors and the National Consumer Law Center. Several witnesses at the hearing aired support for housing finance reform that maintains government-guaranteed access to the secondary mortgage market for all – including credit unions.

At that hearing, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., asked the witnesses about the importance of community-based financial institutions, and Genworth Financial President Rohit Gupta agreed that credit unions must have access to credit "across the board."

Alys Cohen, representing the Consumer Law Center, told Tester, "It is our experience that the biggest problems are the biggest servicers." She agreed that small mortgage servicers are vital to the market and advocated adding "additional servicing measures" to the legislation proposed by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn. – the "Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act," or S. 1217.