CHLA Urges FHFA Actions to Advance Mortgage Market Reform
Letter Outlines Risk Sharing, Cash Window, Other Steps to Protect Consumers
Contact: Scott Olson For Immediate Release
703-475-7365 July 1, 2014
The Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA) today urged the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to take actions which could facilitate a transition to mortgage market reform, in a manner that protects consumers and promotes competition.
In a letter to FHFA Director Mel Watt, the CHLA said that any transitional actions that FHFA takes should focus on these pro-consumer objectives, by promoting competition and consumer access to community-based lenders and by preserving GSE infrastructure to maintain securitization access and a non-discriminatory cash window.
Specifically, the CHLA urged FHFA to:
Carry out its risk sharing pilots in a manner that preserves competitive access to securitization, prohibits vertical integration, prohibits volume discounts, and tests out a risk sharing guarantee at the loan level,
Conduct research into the impact of various reform structures on the preservation of a cash window that meets the needs of all lenders and the consumers they serve,
Complete work on a common securitization platform and single security,
Adopt immediate G Fee parity and equal terms and conditions for all lenders,
Evaluate access and affordability under different risk sharing options.
Mike Douglas, President of Mountain West Financial, and a CHLA board member, said “The actions that FHFA takes can facilitate a transition to effective mortgage market reform. We believe such actions should be done in a way that protects consumers, increases access to credit, and promotes mortgage market competition. Our letter outlines how we believe this can be done.”
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