The American Bankers Association joined a broad coalition of housing and finance trade organizations in a letter to congressional leaders Friday urging them not to use the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee fees as a source of funding offsets. The groups warned lawmakers increasing g-fees for that purpose would effectively serve as a tax on potential homebuyers and homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages.
As ABA has long held, “g-fees should only be used as originally intended: as a critical risk management tool to protect against potential mortgage credit losses,” the groups wrote. “Our organizations have united to emphatically let lawmakers know that homeownership cannot, and must not, be used as the nation’s ‘piggy bank.’”
The groups urged lawmakers to consider bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) that would prohibit the use of g-fees as a budgetary offset.
