Harnessing the Current of Change (Inside the Beltway‪)‬

The past year in Washington, D.C., brought tremendous change to our industry at a pace and with an intensity that is likely to continue in 2009. Thanks to the efforts of our dedicated and skilled leadership, members and staff, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has been able to transform this time of threat into an era of accomplishment and achievement. But we will need to keep up our intense efforts next year as the new president and a new Congress have the opportunity to continue to reshape our industry in profound ways. Indeed, 2008 will go down in history as a watershed year for the real estate finance industry. Going forward, we will think about the industry in terms of what it was before and after the passage of the most important piece of housing legislation in a generation: the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA). We will also talk about what the industry was before and after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went into a tailspin.