[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 3, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 14205-14207]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-06564]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

12 CFR Parts 900, 906, and 956-999

RIN 2590-AA91


Federal Housing Finance Board; Repeal of Federal Housing Finance 
Board Regulations

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Board; Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to 
repeal two parts of the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board) 
regulations, one of which defines terms used in Finance Board 
regulations and one of which describes the process by which the Finance 
Board conducted its monthly interest rate survey (MIRS). The 
definitions to be repealed are either obsolete or duplicate definitions 
that FHFA has previously adopted. The regulation relating to the MIRS 
has become outdated because it does not accurately describe the manner 
in which FHFA currently conducts the survey. Although FHFA intends to 
continue to conduct the MIRS in the same manner as it is doing 
presently, there is no need to carry over this provision into its own 
regulations. FHFA also is proposing to repeal a number of subchapters 
of the Finance Board regulations that it had previously reserved, but 
which no longer serve any purpose because they include no regulatory 
text.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 18, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments, identified by Regulatory 
Information Number (RIN) 2590-AA91, by any of the following methods:
     Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your 
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email 
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by FHFA. 
Please include Comments/RIN 2590-AA91 in the subject line of the 
submission.
     Courier/Hand Delivery: The hand delivery address is: 
Alfred M. Pollard, General Counsel, Attention: Comments/RIN 2590-AA91, 
Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Eighth Floor, 
Washington, DC 20219. Deliver the package to the Seventh Street 
entrance Guard Desk, First Floor, on business days between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m.
     U.S. Mail, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, or 
Other Mail Service: The mailing address for comments is: Alfred M. 
Pollard, General Counsel, Attention: Comments/RIN 2590-AA91, Federal 
Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Eighth Floor, 
Washington, DC 20219. Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via the 
U.S. Mail service is routed through a national irradiation facility, a 
process that may delay delivery by approximately two weeks. For any 
time-sensitive correspondence, please plan accordingly.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vickie R. Olafson, Assistant General 
Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3025 (this is not a toll-
free number), Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, 
Washington, DC 20219. The telephone number for the Telecommunications 
Device for the Deaf is (800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Comments

    FHFA invites comments on all aspects of this proposed rule. FHFA 
will make all comments timely received available

[[Page 14206]]

for examination by the public through the electronic rulemaking docket 
for this proposed rule, which is located on the FHFA website at http://www.fhfa.gov. Such comments will be posted without change and will 
include any personal information you provide, such as name, address, 
email address, and telephone number. After considering all comments, 
FHFA will issue a final rule.

II. Background

    Effective July 30, 2008, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 
2008 (HERA),\1\ created FHFA as a new independent agency of the Federal 
Government, and transferred to FHFA the supervisory and oversight 
responsibilities of the Finance Board over the Federal Home Loan Banks 
(Banks), the oversight responsibilities of the Office of Federal 
Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) over the Federal National Mortgage 
Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (the 
Enterprises), and certain functions of the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development.\2\ Under section 1313(a) of the Federal Housing 
Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and 
Soundness Act), FHFA is responsible for ensuring that the Banks and the 
Enterprises operate in a safe and sound manner, including that they 
maintain adequate capital and internal controls, that their activities 
foster liquid, efficient, competitive and resilient national housing 
finance markets, and that they carry out their public policy missions 
through authorized activities.\3\ The Banks and the Enterprises remain 
subject to, and continue to operate under, regulations promulgated by 
the Finance Board and by OFHEO and HUD, respectively, until such 
regulations are superseded by regulations issued by FHFA.\4\ The 
Finance Board regulations that are the subject of this rulemaking have 
remained in effect pursuant to that authority.
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    \1\ HERA, Public Law 110-289, 122 Stat. 2654.
    \2\ See id. at section 1101, 122 Stat. 2661-62 (codified at 12 
U.S.C. 4511, 4511 note, and 4513).
    \3\ 12 U.S.C. 4513(a).
    \4\ Id. at 4511 note.
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III. The Proposal

A. Definitions--Finance Board Part 900

    FHFA proposes to repeal part 900 of the Finance Board regulations, 
which includes definitions of forty-two terms that had been used 
throughout the Finance Board regulations. In 2013, FHFA carried over 
into its own regulations, at part 1201, most of the Finance Board 
definitions, but did not repeal the Finance Board definitions at that 
time because a number of substantive Finance Board regulations that 
used those terms remained in effect.\5\ Since 2013, FHFA has relocated 
or repealed all of the substantive Finance Board regulations, other 
than those relating to Bank capital requirements, which are the subject 
of a separate rulemaking.\6\ Accordingly, FHFA is now proposing to 
repeal all of the definitions within part 900 of the Finance Board 
regulations. Certain of those defined terms, however, such as ``capital 
plan,'' ``excess stock,'' and ``advance,'' are used within the Finance 
Board capital regulations at parts 930 and 932, which likely will 
remain in effect during an extended transition period to the new FHFA 
Bank capital regulations. Each of those terms is well understood by the 
Banks and also has been carried over into the FHFA definitions at part 
1201 without substantive change. Accordingly, to the extent that any 
interpretive questions may arise with respect to parts 930 and 932 
after FHFA repeals the definitions in part 900, the Banks may look to 
the identical definitions in part 1201 of the FHFA regulations to 
address those questions.
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    \5\ See Relocation of Regulations, 78 FR 2319 (Jan. 11, 2013).
    \6\ See Proposed rule, Federal Home Loan Bank Capital 
Requirements, 82 FR 30776 (July 3, 2017).
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B. Finance Board Part 906

    FHFA proposes to repeal Part 906 of the Finance Board Regulations, 
consisting of reserved subparts A and C, and subpart B, Sec.  906.5, 
which describes the manner in which the Finance Board conducted the 
``Monthly Survey of Rates and Terms on Conventional One-Family Non-farm 
Mortgage Loans'' commonly referred to as the ``Monthly Interest Rate 
Survey'' or ``MIRS.'' The MIRS is a monthly survey of mortgage lenders 
that solicits information on the terms and conditions on all 
conventional, single-family, fully amortizing, purchase-money mortgage 
loans closed during the last five working days of the preceding month. 
It was originally conducted by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board 
(FHLBB), and was continued by the Finance Board, in accordance with the 
Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, 
the legislation that abolished the FHLBB and established the Finance 
Board as its successor. FHFA also has continued to conduct the survey 
and publish the data tables monthly, as successor to the Finance Board.
    Historically, two housing finance benchmarks have been based on 
data obtained through the MIRS: (1) The ``national average one-family 
house price,'' which, between 1980 and 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 
were statutorily required to use in making annual adjustments to the 
conforming loan limit; \7\ and (2) the Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) 
Index, which at one time was widely used by lenders in determining the 
appropriate periodic interest rate adjustment on their ARM loans.
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    \7\ The Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 tied the 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loan limits to MIRS. See 
Public Law 96-399, Title III, section 313(a), (b), 94 Stat. 1644-45 
(Oct. 8, 1980).
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    Adjustments in the conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and 
Freddie Mac are no longer based on data collected through the MIRS. 
Some lenders, however, may still use FHFA's ARM Index, which is derived 
from MIRS data, as one factor in pricing mortgage loans that they 
originate. In addition, businesses, trade associations, and government 
agencies at both the federal and state level rely upon the MIRS data 
for various business and regulatory purposes.
    FHFA intends to continue conducting the MIRS and publishing the 
data results on its website monthly. Because the current MIRS 
regulation includes an outdated description of the manner in which the 
survey is conducted, however, and is not necessary in order to 
implement the statutory mandate that FHFA conduct the survey, FHFA has 
determined that the regulation is unnecessary.\8\ Therefore, FHFA is 
proposing to repeal part 906 in its entirety, consisting of the MIRS 
regulation in subpart B, Sec.  906.5, and reserved subparts A and C.
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    \8\ See Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement 
Act of 1989, Public Law 101-73, Title IV, section 402(e), 103 Stat. 
359-360 (Aug. 9, 1989), codified at 12 U.S.C. 1437 note (regarding 
the continuation of the ARM Index).
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C. Finance Board Parts 956-999 [Reserved] and Subchapters F-M 
[Reserved]

    FHFA proposes to repeal parts 956-999 of title 12 of the CFR, which 
are Finance Board provisions that are designated as ``[r]eserved.'' 
These reserved parts are currently the only items under subchapters F-M 
of chapter IX of title 12. Because these parts contain no substantive 
provisions, there is nothing to revise and relocate to the FHFA 
regulations. Nonetheless, unless FHFA affirmatively removes the 
reference to those parts as being reserved and removes subchapters F-M 
those references and empty subchapters

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F-M would remain in the CFR after FHFA has removed or relocated all of 
the other substantive Finance Board regulations. Therefore, in the 
interest of ensuring that all Finance Board regulations that will not 
be carried forward into the FHFA regulations are removed, FHFA is 
repealing parts 956-999 and subchapters F-M in their entirety.

IV. Considerations of Differences Between the Banks and the Enterprises

    Section 1313(f) of the Safety and Soundness Act requires the FHFA 
Director, when promulgating regulations ``of general applicability and 
future effect'' relating to the Banks, to consider the differences 
between the Banks and the Enterprises as they may relate to the Banks' 
cooperative ownership structure, mission of providing liquidity to 
members, affordable housing and community development mission, capital 
structure, and joint and several liability.\9\ With respect to the 
repeal of Finance Board regulations subject to this rulemaking, this 
proposal does not impose any new obligations on the Banks, but instead 
simply removes existing Finance Board regulations that either have been 
previously carried over to the FHFA regulations or, as a result of the 
passage of HERA and changed circumstances, are obsolete, unnecessary 
and no longer of any regulatory purpose. Further, the repeal of parts 
900, 906 and 956-999 of title 12 of the CFR would not have a ``future 
effect'' on the rights and responsibilities of the Banks. For all of 
these reasons, a statutory differences analysis is not required for 
this final rule.\10\
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    \9\ 12 U.S.C. 4513(f).
    \10\ This is consistent with prior FHFA rulemakings that 
involved only the repeal of Finance Board regulations. See Repeal of 
Regulations, 76 FR 74648 (Dec. 1, 2011).
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V. Paperwork Reduction Act

    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) requires that FHFA 
consider the impact of paperwork and other information collection 
burdens imposed on the public.\11\ Under the PRA and the implementing 
regulations of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), an agency may 
not collect or sponsor the collection of information, nor may it impose 
an information collection requirement unless it displays a currently 
valid control number assigned by OMB.\12\ The MIRS addressed by 12 CFR 
906.5 is a collection of information that OMB has approved under 
control number 2590-0004, which is due to expire on September 30, 2020.
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    \11\ See 44 U.S.C. 3507(a) and (d).
    \12\ See 44 U.S.C. 3512(a); 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3)(vi).
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    Although the proposed rule would remove the descriptive provision 
regarding the MIRS that now appears at 12 CFR 906.5, that removal would 
not change any aspect of the information collection; that is, FHFA 
would continue to conduct the survey in accordance with the terms of 
the existing PRA clearance. Therefore, FHFA has not submitted to OMB a 
request to approve a revision to control number 2590-0004.

VI. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) requires an 
agency to analyze a proposed rule's impact on small entities if the 
final rule is expected to have a significant economic impact on a 
substantial number of small entities. 5 U.S.C. 605(b). FHFA has 
considered the impact of this rulemaking and determined that it is not 
likely to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities because, even assuming it had an economic impact, it 
would apply only to the regulated entities, which are not small 
entities for purposes of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

List of Subjects

12 CFR Part 900

    Federal home loan banks, Office of Finance, Regulated entity.

12 CFR Part 906

    Conventional one-family non-farm mortgage loans, Government 
contracts, Minority businesses, Monthly interest rate survey, 
Mortgages, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

12 CFR Parts 956-999

    Reserved.

Authority and Issuance

    Accordingly, for reasons stated in the preamble and under the 
authority of 12 U.S.C. 4511, 4512, 4513, and 4526, FHFA proposes to 
amend subchapters A, B, and F-M of chapter IX of the Code of Federal 
Regulations as follows:

CHAPTER IX--FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE BOARD

SUBCHAPTER A--[REMOVED AND RESERVED]

0
1. Remove and reserve subchapter A consisting of part 900.

SUBCHAPTER B--[REMOVED AND RESERVED]

0
2. Remove and reserve subchapter B consisting of part 906.

SUBCHAPTERS F-M--[REMOVED]

0
3. Remove reserved subchapters F-M.

    Dated: March 26, 2018.
Melvin L. Watt,
Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2018-06564 Filed 4-2-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P