§4513 Duties and Authorities of Director

Summary

The Director must watch over the financial safety and day-to-day operations of each regulated entity. The Director must make sure each one stays safe and sound (with enough capital and good internal controls), follows the law and agency rules, does only the activities it is allowed to do, and runs in ways that help strong, liquid, competitive, and resilient national housing finance markets — including work on mortgages for low- and moderate-income families that may earn less profit. The Director can review and, if needed, block any deal that would give someone control of a regulated entity and can use whatever extra powers are needed to do the job. Before making new rules or decisions about tough actions like conservatorship or receivership, the Director must consult with the Chair of the Federal Reserve about risks to the financial system and share regular information about capital, assets and liabilities, financial condition, risk management, and market stability (that consultation requirement ended on December 31, 2009). The Director may delegate tasks to agency staff, may act in the Director’s own name and with the Director’s lawyers in court matters, and can be sued (but not for money damages) by a regulated entity in certain federal courts. Before making rules or general actions that affect the Federal Home Loan Banks, the Director must think about how those Banks differ from the housing enterprises — including their cooperative ownership, their mission to provide liquidity to members, their affordable housing and community development roles, their capital setup, their joint and several liability, and any other differences the Director finds relevant. The Director may reissue prior guidance from the former Housing Finance Board without repeating this review.