[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 67 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 17252]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-8551]



[[Page 17251]]

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Part IV





Department of Housing and Urban Development





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Notice Concerning Release of Certain Loan-Level Data on Ginnie Mae 
Mortgage-Backed Securities; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 67 / Tuesday, April 8, 2003 / 
Notices  

[[Page 17252]]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4810-N-01]


Notice Concerning Release of Certain Loan-Level Data on Ginnie 
Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities

AGENCY: The Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This proposed notice announces the intent of Ginnie Mae, a 
Government corporation within the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD), to make certain loan-level data available to the 
public on Ginnie Mae multifamily securities, and invites public 
comments on this policy. This notice also invites comments regarding 
the impact of releasing specific loan-level information.

DATES: Comment due date: May 8, 2003.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments and 
responses to the Rules Docket Clerk, Office of the General Counsel, 
Room 10276, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20410-0500. Communications should refer to 
the above docket number and title. Facsimile (FAX) responses are not 
accepted.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paulette M. Griffin, Director, 
Multifamily Programs Division, Office of Mortgage-Backed Securities, 
Room 6216, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh 
Street, SW., Washington, DC 20410; telephone (202) 708-2043 (this is 
not a toll free number). Speech-or hearing-impaired individuals may 
access this number via TTY by calling the toll free Federal Information 
Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Government National Mortgage Association 
(Ginnie Mae), a corporation that is wholly owned by the federal 
government, was created in 1968 to assist in the movement of funds from 
capital market investors to the housing market. Ginnie Mae guarantees 
the timely payment of principal and interest on single family, 
multifamily, and multiclass mortgage-backed securities issued by 
private institutions. The securities are backed by pools of mortgage 
loans that are insured or guaranteed by the Federal Housing 
Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Rural Housing 
Service, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under 
section 184 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992.
    In order to achieve a fair and open market in Ginnie Mae-guaranteed 
multifamily securities, the investing public, the securities industry, 
and issuers/servicers of those securities have asked Ginnie Mae to make 
delinquency information available to the public on the multifamily 
loans that back Ginnie Mae securities. Ginnie Mae proposes to make this 
information available to the public. Presently, issuers/servicers are 
free to disclose this information to the public, but there is no 
requirement that they do so. Some issuers/servicers disclose this 
information; others do not, and still other issuers/servicers 
selectively disclose the loan information. Unless this information is 
publicly available, investors may use less favorable assumptions when 
pricing multifamily Ginnie Mae securities. Making this multifamily loan 
information available to investors should lead to greater investor 
confidence and more accurate pricing on these securities. This could 
decrease the cost of borrowing to finance apartment buildings, and thus 
decrease the rents of low- and moderate-income families that live in 
those buildings.
    The Department of Justice has advised HUD that, in the case of 
numerous information submitters, disclosure by an agency is permitted 
after publication of the agency's intent to release such information in 
a manner calculated to provide notice and afford affected parties an 
opportunity to comment. This procedure serves as notice to the public 
and provides an opportunity to comment. HUD first used this procedure 
in connection with disclosure of past note sale bids by publication in 
the Federal Register and the Commerce Business Daily. See 63 FR 36255 
(July 2, 1998) and CBDNet Submission No. 230722 (July 30, 1998). 
Following this procedure, Ginnie Mae is publishing this notice of 
Ginnie Mae's intent to make this information available to the public.
    Ginnie Mae invites interested persons to submit their comments 
regarding this proposed policy. Ginnie Mae is also interested in 
receiving comments from Ginnie Mae submitters and investors. Commenters 
are asked to provide Ginnie Mae with a detailed written statement of 
their objections, if any, to release of the information. Such statement 
shall specify all grounds for withholding the information and shall 
specifically demonstrate why the information is a trade secret or 
commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential. 
If a commenter maintains that disclosure would cause competitive harm, 
for example, the statement should show that disclosure would reasonably 
be expected to cause such harm. Conclusory statements that the 
information would be useful to competitors or similar conclusory 
statements generally will not be considered sufficient to justify 
confidential treatment.
    At the conclusion of the comment period, Ginnie Mae will consider 
all comments and determine whether further changes should be made to 
this policy as a result of the issues raised by commenters. A final 
Notice will be published in the Federal Register that, if necessary, 
will set forth changes to the policy announced in this Notice, or that 
will adopt this policy without change.
    Ginnie Mae will also carefully consider comments and objections 
before determining whether to disclose specific delinquency 
information. If Ginnie Mae decides to disclose the information over the 
objections of a submitter, Ginnie Mae will advise the submitter in a 
written notice of its intent to disclose the information 10 business 
days before the specified disclosure date.

    Authority:  12 U.S.C. 1721(g); 5 U.S.C. 552; 24 CFR 15.108(c); 
E.O. 12600.

    Dated: March 31, 2003.
Ronald Rosenfeld,
President, Government National Mortgage Association.
[FR Doc. 03-8551 Filed 4-7-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-66-U