Press Releases

The OCC has issued its final CRA rule just six weeks after the end of the comment period on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) and amid the worst health and economic crisis of our lifetimes. Banks, regulators and community groups must be singularly focused on responding to this unprecedented crisis, and not on bureaucratic and regulatory diversions that will sidetrack essential resources from the task at hand.

Today, NHC joined with a diverse coalition of organizations in housing and community development to call for federal regulatory agencies to temporarily suspend housing-related rulemaking procedures that are unrelated to our nation’s response to the health and economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“FHFA’s announcement today is an important first step. Ensuring servicers can move payments to the end of the loan term and get reimbursed in four months is progress.”

NHC strongly recommends an immediate suspension of all regulatory processes involving housing and financial services that do not directly contribute to the war against the COVID-19 virus and its economic aftermath.

The National Housing Conference (NHC) applauds Congress and the Trump administration for enacting a critical $2 trillion emergency spending package to provide relief for Americans who have been adversely impacted by COVID-19.

Praises HUD, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae move to halt evictions and foreclosures as a ‘critical first step’

NHC praises FDIC and OCC extension as an ‘important first step.’

“There is no question that CRA needs to be modernized, but the proposed approach is the wrong way to do it. After more than a year of consideration and 1,500 comment letters, the OCC and FDIC have come up with a formula-driven approach that almost nobody in the housing community supports and is rife with millions of dollars in hidden costs and enormous unintended consequences. This is a missed opportunity,” said Dworkin.

“The administration’s changes to the False Claims Act are an important step towards reversing a decade of unintended consequences that have forced many of the nation’s best capitalized and most regulated financial institutions out of the FHA market,” said David M. Dworkin, NHC president and CEO. “A law that was meant to protect Civil War troops from lame mules and shoddy uniforms has no place in the mortgage finance system. Our regulations must protect consumers from bad mortgages, not from getting a mortgage.”