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Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday expressed his support for reform efforts that would strengthen the secondary mortgage market and bring the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship.

"In terms of the housing crisis, it's really the last piece that's left," Carson said while responding to a question about the importance of housing finance reform from Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., during a House Financial Services Committee oversight hearing.

"Ten years later [the GSEs] are still in conservatorship, which places taxpayers at additional risk. I love the fact that many people are starting to talk about how do we get them out, how do we put them on a level playing field in the secondary market with private guarantors to create competition and still have an appropriate guarantee to encourage capital in the market," Carson continued.

NAFCU met with Carson last year to discuss affordable housing, credit unions' priorities for housing finance reform and the importance of credit unions' access to the secondary mortgage market through government-sponsored enterprises to provide high-quality loan services to American families. As talks of housing finance reform are underway on Capitol Hill, NAFCU remains engaged with lawmakers and agency officials to advance the association's core principles for housing finance reform.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, also asked Carson about HUD's disparate impact standard and the department's legal authority to regulate insurance. HUD recently indicated it will review the implementation of the standard; Carson said the department remains concerned about discrimination and is looking into the impact of the standard on entities.

Carson discussed a variety of housing issues with the committee, including Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans, the role of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data in preventing discrimination, manufactured housing and alternative credit scoring.