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Oct. 28, 2013 – Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol Galante last week said legislators need a sense of "urgency" for housing finance reform and that higher interest rates are threatening the status quo.

The Hill quoted Galante telling a housing conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center, "Housing finance is too important to be pushed aside. There is an urgency that needs to be harnessed for fear of getting too mired and comfortable in the status quo."

Galante specifically pointed to higher interest rates and insurance premium costs as causes for a decline in FHA loan volume to pre-financial crisis levels, and she said the private market is not making up the difference, the report said. It said she attempted to "tamp down" concerns about the agency's need for $1.7 billion to comply with the Federal Credit Reform Act's requirements for credit agency reserves.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on the FHA reserves issue, subtitled "Implications of a $1.7 billion Taxpayer Bailout."

On housing finance reform, NAFCU is continuing to press lawmakers on the need for credit unions to have guaranteed access to the secondary market. It has also pressed for greater congressional oversight of FHA.