NAFCU Details Goals for Housing Policy Reforms

The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) has issued what it describes as its “core principles” for balancing federal housing finance reform with the specific needs of the credit union industry.

 

NAFCU cited the need for “an explicit government guarantee on the payment of principal and interest on mortgage-backed securities” as among its tenets for any Congressional reform package, along with the need for self-funded government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) that do not require dedicated government appropriations. NAFCU also sought the creation of a Federal Housing Finance Agency board of advisors, and allowance for the GSEs to rebuild their capital buffers, and an expansion of credit risk transactions along with the retention of the Common Securitization Platform and the Single Security.

The trade group called for the continuing role of the Federal Home Loan Banks as being “a central part of the mortgage market.”

 

"Credit unions play a vital part in today's mortgage market by providing high-quality loans and increasing their members' access to credit," said NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger. "NAFCU believes that these core principles must be retained in any housing finance reform package, along with a healthy and sustainable secondary mortgage market that provides equal access to lenders of all sizes."