The Structured Finance Association today applauded steps taken by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to facilitate the transition away from the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the benchmark index currently used to determine the interest rate that consumers pay on some credit cards, home equity lines of credit, reverse mortgages, and private student loans, which is expected to be discontinued after 2021.

Michael interviews Marco Davis, President and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, where they discuss the impact on the Latino community of COVID-19, institutional bias, and the ongoing protests, as well as how Wall Street can help young Latinos gain access to jobs in finance coming out of college.

SFA’s Head of Research Elen Callahan hosted a webinar with CoreLogic’s Chief Economist Frank Nothaft, Fitch Rating’s Senior Director Suzanne Mistretta, and New York Real Estate Agent Karen Kostiw on the current status of the US housing market.

Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Martha McSally (R-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin asking that the Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility (“TALF”) be expanded to accept all essential lending sectors of senior-most asset backed securities (ABS) as eligible collateral.

SFA has put together a matrix comparing the 2008 TALF program criteria, as well as the asset and loan criteria, to that of 2020 TALF.

SFA released a statement earlier today applauding Friday’s announcement from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on a final rule clarifying that “when a national bank or savings association sells, assigns, or otherwise transfers a loan, interest permissible before the transfer continues to be permissible after the transfer.”

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that it will expand the number and types of entities that would be eligible to use the Municipal Liquidity Facility (Facility)

A proposed FHFA plan to assist Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in withstanding losses could end up impacting borrowers with less wealth and lower incomes according to Bloomberg.

The Credit Ratings Subcommittee of the Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee (FIMSAC) has released a preliminary recommendation regarding ways to mitigate conflicts of interest in credit ratings.

Last Friday, the Bank of England’s “Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates” (Task Force) released a working paper advocating for the British government to pass legislation that would address the legacy contract issue arguing, “it would bring about international consistency in the treatment of tough legacy contracts.”