FHFA Extends Public Comment Period for Proposed Rule on GSE Capital Requirements

The Federal Housing Finance Agency extended the public comment period for the Agency’s proposed rule on Enterprise Capital Requirements by an additional 60 days, citing “high level of interest in the proposed rule and requests from multiple stakeholders for more time to evaluate it.”

The previous deadline for comments was September 17; the new deadline is November 16.

FHFA has proposed a new regulatory capital framework for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which includes a new framework for risk-based capital requirements and two alternatives for an updated minimum leverage capital requirement. The risk-based framework would provide a granular assessment of credit risk specific to different mortgage loan categories, as well as market risk, operational risk and going-concern buffer components.

The proposed rule would maintain the statutory definitions of core capital and total capital. FHFA has suspended the Enterprises’ capital requirements since the beginning of conservatorship; FHFA plans to continue this suspension while the GSEs remain in conservatorship.

Link to Proposed Rule (published in Federal Register July 17, 2018)
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-07-17/pdf/2018-14255.pdf.

Link to Extension on Proposed Rule (text as sent to Federal Register)
https://www.fhfa.gov/SupervisionRegulation/Rules/Pages/Enterprise-Capital-Requirements-Extension-of-Comment-Period.aspx.