ABSTRACT
The President’s Commission on Housing proposes radical changes in the structure of institutions supplying residential mortgage funds. By massive broadening of their asset and liability powers, the thrifts are to become quasi-banks. The resulting housing credit gap is to be filled by multipurpose lenders, notably pension funds, and by greater use of mortgage securities backed by conventional as well as Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration loans. The proposals for structural revision of mortgage lending institutions can be summed up in one magic word: deregulation. Massive deregulation of the thrift institutions, until recently the mainstays of residential and especially home financing, would reduce the role of the only US specialists as portfolio lenders. The Depository Institutions Act provides for substantial diversification of the thrift institutions and the new powers are similar to those proposed by the President’s Commission, but the Congress has not gone quite as far as the Commission.
