FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Senate Confirms Fed Nominations for Jefferson, Cook
The Senate Wednesday confirmed the nominations of Philip Jefferson to serve as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve board and Lisa Cook to serve an additional term on the board.
Jefferson joined the Fed board in 2022 to fill an unexpired term ending in 2036. He most recently was VP for academic affairs and dean of faculty and the Paul B. Freeland Professor of Economics at Davidson College. He will serve a four-year term as vice chairman. The vote was 88-10.
Cook, a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, joined the Fed board in 2022 to fill an unexpired term ending in 2024. The Senate voted 51-47 to confirm Cook for an additional 14-year term.
President Joe Biden also nominated economist Adriana Kugler to fill an unexpired term board ending in 2026. The Senate voted to advance the nomination but has not yet voted on her confirmation
FDIC Launches New Site for Consumer Compliance, CRA Exam Activities
This month the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is launching a new “Banker Engagement Site” (BES) through its FDICconnect web portal, with the site functioning as the primary tool for exchanging examination planning and other information for the agency’s consumer compliance and Community Reinvestment Act activities. Specifically, the site will provide a financial institution’s authorized staff the ability to communicate with FDIC examination staff and respond to the information and document requests made during the supervisory process, the agency said in a statement.
Among its features, BES will give bank users the ability to collaborate with the FDIC’s examination team when responding to information and document requests, submit questions and comments to the examination team, and view submitted responses and documents. The FDIC’s existing tool to exchange examination information, the Enterprise File Exchange, will continue to be used in instances where the pre-planning for consumer compliance and CRA activity was initiated before the availability of BES and also may be used in some additional circumstances, the agency said.
FHFA: Homeowners’ Equity Remains High
Homeowner equity in the U.S. remains high and the percentage of homeowners with negative equity is at its lowest level in a decade, according to a new analysis by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Citing the most recent data from the National Mortgage Database, agency staff noted that around 97% of outstanding first-lien, closed-end residential mortgages in the U.S., and 98.5% of those acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have home equity above 10%.
At the same time, the percentage of mortgages with equity of more than or equal to 30% has increased steadily from 46.1% in the first quarter of 2013 to a 10-year high of 83.3% by Q1 2023, according to the analysis. However, the percentage of high-equity mortgages has been relatively constant over the past year.
Most homeowners who purchased or refinanced their properties prior to Q2 2022 have seen large home price appreciation, and consequently, large increases in home equity, causing only 0.2% of mortgages to have negative equity, the lowest value since 2013, according to FHFA. While house price appreciation has helped increase home equity, if house prices were to decline 10%, homeowners with current equity of 10% or less would go “underwater” or have negative equity, owing their lender more than the property’s worth, the report added.