The Federal Housing Finance Agency is withdrawing three proposed rules concerning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac liquidity requirements, Federal Home Loan Bank governance and FHLBank unsecured credit limits.
In a Federal Register notice, FHFA said it is withdrawing the Biden-era proposed rules because it no longer intends to issue final rules with respect to the proposals. They are:
- A 2021 proposed rule that would have established minimum liquidity requirements sufficient for Fannie and Freddie to continue meeting their financial obligations in periods of short-term and long-term debt market stress. The minimum liquidity requirements would have defined eligible assets that would qualify for liquidity and the metrics for determining compliance.
- A 2024 proposed rule that would have required FHLBanks to expand the experience qualifications for independent directors to include artificial intelligence, Community Development Financial Institution business models, climate risk, information technology and security, and modeling. It would have also required the banks to adopt conflict-of-interest policies.
- A 2024 proposed rule that would have modified limits on FHLBank extensions of unsecured credit in their on- and off-balance sheet and derivative transactions. Currently, overnight federal funds are excluded from the more restrictive “general limit” on unsecured credit to a single counterparty and are limited only by the higher “overall limit.” The proposed rule would have added interest-bearing deposit accounts and other authorized overnight investments to that exclusion, which may have provided greater flexibility and improved cost to yield than overnight federal funds.
