Newsroom

NAFCU Regulatory Affairs Counsel Ann Kossachev is at the Federal Housing Finance Agency today to discuss the final duty-to-serve rule, including a NAFCU-sought provision allowing chattel loans to count toward a lender's "duty to serve."

The NAFCU-sought measure allows loans for manufactured housing titled as personal property, or chattel loans, to be eligible to receive duty to serve credit to count toward lenders' duty to serve underserved markets – including the manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing markets.

Kossachev will be joined by a representative from PenFed Credit Union for the discussion, which will focus on what government-sponsored enterprises should include in their underserved markets plans. Kossachev will discuss the chattel loans pilot program as well as affordable housing preservation.

Under the final rule – which was issued in December – credit would be provided by the government-sponsored enterprises for activities undertaken related to financing manufactured housing units titled as real estate property and as personal property. NAFCU had urged the FHFA to revise its 2015 proposal to allow credit unions that have experience making chattel loans on manufactured housing to be eligible for duty-to-serve credit.

The final rule requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to adopt plans to improve the distribution and availability of mortgage financing for residential properties that serve very low-, low- and moderate-income families in the three specified underserved markets. The GSEs will each be required to submit to FHFA a three-year plan – to become effective January 2018 – that describes the activities and objectives they will undertake to meet their duty-to-serve requirements.

As lawmakers continue deliberations on the disposition of the GSEs, NAFCU is keeping up efforts to ensure that any housing finance reform measure guarantees credit unions continued access to the secondary mortgage market.