Maintaining Capital in the Secondary Mortgage Market: Housing Finance Reform and the Liquidity Coverage Ratio

This Note argues that the recently adopted LCR rule must be accounted for in any housing finance reform bill passed by Congress, and may potentially require a rewrite of certain aspects of the rule in order to prevent serious harm to the primary and secondary mortgage markets, banks, and the U.S. economy. This Note focuses on the wisdom of excluding certain asset classes, namely private label mortgage-backed securities ("MBS") and collateralized mortgage obligations ("CMOs"), from the LCR rule’s definition of HQLA.