Eligibility for discount of mortgage company notes.

CFR · 2024-01-01 · US · Title 12

(a) The question has arisen whether notes issued by mortgage banking companies to finance their acquisition and temporary holding of real estate mortgages are eligible for discount by Reserve Banks. (b) Under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act the Board has authority to define what are “agricultural, industrial, or commercial purposes”, which is the statutory criterion for determining the eligibility of notes and drafts for discount. However, such definition may not include paper “covering merely investments or issued or drawn for the purpose of carrying or trading in stocks, bonds, or other investment securities”. (c) The legislative history of section 13 suggests that Congress intended to make eligible for discount “any paper drawn for a legitimate business purpose of any kind” (d) In providing for the discount of commercial paper by Reserve Banks, Congress obviously intended to facilitate the current financing of agriculture, industry, and commerce, as opposed to long-term investment. (e) Section 201.3(a) provides that a negotiable note maturing in 90 days or less is not eligible for discount if the proceeds are used “for permanent or fixed investments of any kind, such as land, buildings or machinery, or for any other fixed capital purpose”. However, the proceeds of a mortgage company's commercial paper are not used by it for any permanent or fixed capital purpose, but only to carry temporarily an inventory of mortgage loans pending their “packaging” for sale to perman

official document · source cfr-2024 · id 12:§ 201.109