Regulatory Legislative and Legal

Scott A. Stengel is a partner in the Washington, DC, office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and a member of the Steering Committee for the U.S. Covered Bond Council.  He testified at the hearing on "Covered Bonds: Potential Uses and Regulatory Issues" held Sept. 15 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

To download a PDF of Stengel's prepared testimony for the hearing (10 pages), click on "20100915 Stengel" under "Attachment" below.

Kenneth A Snowden, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, describes himself as "an economic historian who for the past two decades has studied the development of the U.S. mortgage market."  He testified at the hearing on "Covered Bonds: Potential Uses and Regulatory Issues" held Sept. 15 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

To download a PDF of Snowden's prepared testimony for the hearing (19 pages), click on "20100915 Snowden" under "Attachment" below.

Michael H. Krimminger is Deputy to the Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). He testified at the hearing on "Covered Bonds: Potential Uses and Regulatory Issues" held Sept. 15 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

To download a PDF of Krimminger's prepared testimony for the hearing (17 pages), click on "20100915 Krimminger" under "Attachment" below.

Ric Campo is Chairman and CEO of Camden Property Trust, a publicly held apartment firm.  He is also the immediate past Chairman of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC).  He testified on behalf of the NMHC and its joint legislative partner, the National Apartment Association (NAA) at the hearing on "Covered Bonds: Potential Uses and Regulatory Issues" held Sept. 15 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

Julie L. Williams is Chief Counsel and First Senior Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).  She testified at the hearing on "Covered Bonds: Potential Uses and Regulatory Issues" held Sept. 15 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

To download a PDF of her prepared testimony for the hearing (17 pages), click on "20100915 Williams" under "Attachment" below.

Several amendments to H.R. 5823 — the latest version of covered bond legislation in Congress — were added to the bill during the markup session of the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) before the HSFC voted to report the bill to the House floor.

• A four-page amendment from Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) provides for a system of joint regulation by a variety of entities instead of oversight by a single regulator.

To download a PDF of the Bean amendment, click on "20100728 bean" under "Attachments," below.

This useful fourteen-page report from the Congressional Research Service was written by Edward V. Murphy, a specialist in financial economics.  Here is the table of contents:

Definitions

Policy Issues

"Skin in the Game" and Underwriting

Transparency and Investor Confidence

Capital Requirements and Lending Volume

Maturity Mismatch

July 22, 2010 saw the introduction of a new version of proposed covered bond legislation — H.R. 5823 — to supersede a previous version (H.R. 4884) with the same title, the "United States Covered Bond Act of 2010."  While similar in many ways to the previous version, H.R. 5823 also presents some significant differences.

To download a PDF (31 pages) of the full text of the new bill, click on "H.R. 5823" under "Attachment," below.

The final shape of the financial services reform bill — a compromise between versions previously passed separately by the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate — will be determined by a House-Senate conference committee comprised of members from both chambers.  On June 22, the House conferees voted to include covered bond provisions as part of the compromise version they would like the Senate side to agree with.

Canadian covered bonds are the topic of a reference article by John Mackle in Westlaw Business titled "Covered Bonds: Canadians Do Debt in Europe" (May 26). The article's premise is that with recent Canadian covered bond issues raising billions, "the legal nuances of the covered bond will soon be a topic for discussion in many boardrooms."