The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has sent two rules to the Federal Register for publication. Both rules implement provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) – the legislation that birthed the FHFA.
One of the rules is a final rule pertaining to the FHFA's conservatorship and receivership. According to the agency, the rule provides more specificity on the operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "The rule clarifies the relationship among various classes of creditors and equity holders under a conservatorship or receivership and the priorities for contract parties and other claimants in receivership," the FHFA says.
The second rule, a proposal, relates to HERA requirements for the FHFA director to adopt prudential standards in areas such as internal controls, market risk and interest-rate-risk exposure. HERA provides for the standards to be adopted by regulation or guidelines.
"Consistent with a principles-based approach to financial supervision, the agency is proposing to adopt the standards as guidelines, which generally provide principles and leave to the regulated entities the obligation to organize and manage themselves to ensure that the standards are met, subject to agency oversight," the FHFA says.