MBA ‘Call to Action’ Pushes Momentum for GSE Reform
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Action Alliance issued a Call to Action yesterday, urging lawmakers in the House and Senate to continue moving toward secondary mortgage market reform.
The Call to Action comes on the heels of the latest Senate Banking Committee hearing on housing finance reform. The hearing focused on maintaining access to small lenders. MBA, whose President and CEO David Stevens, CMB, testified before the Committee June 29, submitted a statement for yesterday’s hearing, as did more than 40 MBA state and local affiliates and more than 100 small lenders who are MBA members.
MBA continues to urge Congress to take action on the future of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market. In April, MBA issued a white paper, GSE Reform: Creating a Sustainable, More Vibrant Secondary Mortgage Market (https://www.mba.org/issues/gse-reform). The paper, created by the MBA Task Force for a Future Secondary Mortgage Market, reflects a broad cross-section of the industry, including small and mid-sized lenders.
The MBA proposal features a number of provisions specifically designed to protect small and mid-sized lender access to the secondary market, including:
–Prohibiting special pricing or underwriting exceptions for certain lenders based upon loan volume or other elements of their business model;
–Specifying equitable, transparent and direct access to secondary market programs in both the mandate of the regulator and the charters of the Guarantors;
–Requiring all Guarantors to offer cash window and small pool execution options;
–Preventing vertical integration by instituting strict statutory limits on lender ownership stakes in Guarantors;
–Maintaining the “bright line” separating the primary and secondary markets to ensure that Guarantors do not compete with lenders; and
–Minimizing operational risks associated with the transition to a new system by preserving the assets and infrastructure of the current system wherever possible.
The Call to Action stresses asks Mortgage Action Alliance members to contact their elected officials, stressing the importance of action on the GSEs, the need to ensure equal access to small lenders and to read the MBA white paper outlining a path forward to support GSE reform in line with principles outlined in the paper.
Membership in the MBA Mortgage Action Alliance is free; MBA membership is not required. For more information, click http://apps.mba.org/Advocacy/MortgageActionAlliance/MAASignup.htm. To contact your elected officials, click http://action.mba.org/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=337633.
