Senior officials of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Union and Ginnie Mae met this week to discuss housing finance challenges and credit union participation in Ginnie Mae programs—in anticipation of housing reform.

The meeting between Dan Berger, president and CEO of NAFCU, and Michael Bright, acting president of Ginnie Mae, also covered the Association's key principles for reform, such as the following:

• The government sponsored enterprises should be self-funded, without any dedicated government appropriations.
• Credit risk transfer transactions should be expanded and the Common Securitization Platform and Single Security retained.
• FHFA or its successor should continue to provide strong oversight of the GSEs and the new system, whatever it may look like.
• The transition to a new system should be as seamless as possible.

NAFCU seeks to ensure that lawmakers and agency officials include credit unions' principles in the Trump Administration housing reform.

Bright joined Ginnie Mae July 2017 as executive vice president and COO; he is awaiting Senate confirmation to serve as president. Bright has also served as a senior financial policy advisor to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and helped draft a GSE reform bill introduced by Corker and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in 2013.

Treasury Department Counselor Craig Phillips recently said the administration is working on housing finance reform and plans to build on recommendations that it released in June. NAFCU has called on the administration to work with Congress to develop a comprehensive solution to reforming the housing finance system.

From a legislative perspective, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, and Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., in September released a housing finance reform discussion draft that would transform Ginnie Mae's role in the housing finance market, as well as preserve a NAFCU-sought government guarantee to the secondary mortgage market and create more lending opportunities for small lenders.

In addition, following the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s release of housing finance reform objectives to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee earlier this year, Senate Banking members Corker and Warner released draft legislation. The proposal outlines new roles for Ginnie Mae and the FHFA, while establishing conditions for transition from a GSE model, to one with multiple guarantors and guaranteed access for small lenders.