Making Home Affordable Info Session

Posted by on June 8, 2009

A meeting designed to enable housing counselors, bank lenders and servicers, and others to understand the new Making Home Affordable (MHA) program and recent experience with the program will be held Tuesday, June 30 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Boehne Auditorium, at 100 North 6th Street in Philadelphia.  The Obama Administration launched MHA in March to help millions of homeowners modify or refinance their mortgages to a payment that is affordable and sustainable over the long term.

The meeting is being organized by the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition’s Foreclosure Prevention Task Force (FPTF), the Financial Education Network of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Fed.  The FPTF, formed in 2007 to identify and implement solutions to the foreclosure crisis, consists of bankers, housing counselors, legal aid attorneys, community advocates, and local government representatives.  The FPTF publishes a Foreclosure Prevention Resource Guide; the summer 2009 edition is available.

Speakers include Alfred M. Pollard, general counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which was created in mid-2008 and regulates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.  Major issues for FHFA’s Office of General Counsel include federal regulation of government-sponsored enterprises in areas of capital, corporate governance, internal controls, affordable housing, and accounting as well as legal developments affecting mortgage markets.

Pollard serves on the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force and has had a leadership role in major investigations and enforcement actions and the conservatorships imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He previously served as senior director of legislative affairs at the Financial Services Roundtable, a CEO-level trade group for the nation’s largest financial institutions.  Earlier, he was senior vice president and director of the Washington office for Security Pacific Corporation and, briefly, for Bank of America.  He is lead author of a two-volume text, Banking Law in the United States.

You must register online by Tuesday, June 23, 2009 in order to attend.  The registration fee is $5.  To register, go to https://www.frbconferences.org/phil/09fen/confinfo.cfm.  Participants will receive an e-mail from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia to confirm their registration. Please bring your registration receipt with you.

The meeting will start promptly at 9 a.m.  We recommend that you plan to arrive at the Bank between 8:15 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. in order to go through security procedures at the Bank.  A valid photo ID will be required for admission to the program.

Please contact Keith Rolland at keith.rolland@phil.frb.org if you have questions.  Thank you.