Public Law No: 110-289 … reading it
It’s called the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 – those other ‘Short Titles’ I showed you in an earlier post, are merely segments/sections of this massive new Law created ‘To provide needed housing reform and for other purposes.’
Effective at the end of the 1-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the positions of the Director and Deputy Director of such Office are abolished … along with the Federal Housing Finance Board is also abolished … so buh-bye OFHEO and HFB!
There are loads of procedural changes, rights, reports, authority, modifications, etc. cited … most notably is the long over-due new oversight of the GSE’s! I especially enjoyed seeing … “The Director shall have the power to approve, disapprove, or modify the executive compensation, his authority over WITHHOLDING OF EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION and LIMIT ON GOLDEN PARACHUTES” areas I have been calling for, for almost a decade. These execs have gotten all too comfortable with the concept of looting from within in my view, their greed has been breath-taking, almost raising it to the level of an Olympic Event! I also like this part too “PRIOR APPROVAL AUTHORITY FOR PRODUCTS … In General – The Director shall require each enterprise to obtain the approval of the Director for any product of the enterprise before initially offering the product” – this way Fannie & Fredie can’t come out with new and even stupider loan products in the future all on their own.
I also like this … TEMPORARY AUTHORITY FOR PURCHASE OF OBLIGATIONS OF REGULATED ENTITIES BY SECRETARY OF TREASURY shall expire December 31, 2009, except for two glaring exceptions! It confirms to the international Capital Markets that yes indeed, the GSE’s are in fact, backed by the full faith and credit of the Government of the United States of America … and THAT’S seriously good for our industry.
At this point, I have only reviewed 207 pages and 62,571 words ‘all written in lawyer’ (almost actual real English – but not quite). The next section (that I have only skimmed so far) is TITLE IV–HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS and so far, I think I like this alot!
I’ll keep ya posted if my head doesn’t explose first!
