The Federal Housing Finance Agency is extending the comment period for its proposed rule on Federal Home Loan Bank membership by 60 days due to the high level of interest in the proposal and requests from multiple stakeholders for more time to evaluate the proposed rule.
The comment period will now close on Jan. 12, 2015 after previously being scheduled for Nov. 12, 2014.
The proposed rule would revise the requirements for financial institutions to apply for and retain membership in one of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, and dial real estate investment trusts out.
As a result, it would revise FHFA’s existing membership regulation to require that members maintain a commitment to housing finance and that only eligible entities can gain access to bank advances and the benefits of membership.
More information on the new rule’s requirements can be found here.
So far, the proposed rules has garnered a lot of opposition: “We believe that there will be a pushback against the FHFA’s FHLB proposal but our sense is that the esoteric nature of this particular issue, coupled with the slate of other FHFA proposals outstanding, may make it difficult to organize an effective opposition campaign,” analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading said in an email to clients.
