Newsroom

March 26, 2014

NAFCU back to White House on GSE reform

March 27, 2014 – NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt and Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler took part in another meeting held by White House and administration officials Wednesday on housing finance reform.

The meeting was the second in two weeks attended by NAFCU as White House officials continue to hear from stakeholders on the impact of the Johnson-Crapo GSE reform package.

During last week's meeting, Hunt discussed the draft legislation with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Sean Donovan and other financial industry groups. The meetings are a part of a series which NAFCU has been invite to participate in with White House and Obama administration officials over the next few weeks. Senior NAFCU staff also briefed senior HUD staff on the credit union industry's top concerns related to GSE reform earlier this week.

The GSE reform package – released by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho – would provide for a wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create a new mortgage insurance entity that could establish one or more mutual companies to facilitate secondary mortgage market access for lenders, including small lenders such as credit unions. The plan also sets up a series of new fees and a plan for transferring Fannie and Freddie funds to help capitalize the new entity.

NAFCU is evaluating the 442-page bill for its impact on credit unions. The association is urging lawmakers to ensure credit unions guaranteed access to the secondary mortgage market, a continuation of the government guarantee and fair pricing that is based on loan quality in any housing finance reform package.