Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, FINANCIAL STABILITY—FHFA withdraws from international climate change network, ends sustainable housing committee, (Sep 24, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Federal Housing Finance Agency | Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Both initiatives were undertaken during President Biden’s administration.
On September 19, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William J. Pulte announced through a social media post that, effective immediately, the FHFA—which he called U.S. Federal Housing—is withdrawing from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). Then on September 24, Pulte again posted, stating that effective immediately, the agency is terminating the “Affordable, Equitable and Sustainable Housing” Committee, which was established under President Joe Biden. According to the Post on X, the agency is “instead, focused on the safety of the market and restoring the American Dream!”
In August 2022, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it would establish a new advisory committee to inform policy on affordable housing. The agency said the approximately 20-member committee would include representatives with experience in at least one of seven areas listed, including local government housing policy; housing research; single- or multi-family lending, servicing, and investments; fair housing, lending, or civil rights; and consumer, tenant or community advocacy.
The FHFA announced its membership in the NGFS—an international consortium of banks and financial regulators—in May 2022 (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, May 12, 2022). “FHFA recognizes that climate change poses a serious threat to the U.S. housing finance system,” said then-Acting Director Sandra L. Thompson. Thompson issued a statement in December 2021 that affirmed the agency's commitment to making tangible progress toward addressing the impact of climate change on the nation's housing finance system. The statement also noted that FHFA’s regulated entities should designate climate change as a priority concern and actively consider its effects in their decision making.
Other agency actions. The FHFA’s actions follow a similar trajectory to other regulatory agencies. On Jan. 17, 2025, the Federal Reserve Board announced that four years after it joined, it would be leaving the network of central bankers from around the world responsible for developing and implementing environment and climate risk management in the financial sector (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Jan. 21, 2025). The Fed’s brief announcement noted that the Fed has “appreciated the engagement with the NGFS and its members,” and said the work of the NGFS has increasingly broadened in scope, covering a wider range of issues that are outside the Fed’s statutory mandate. The Fed formally announced that it had joined NGFS as a member on Dec. 15, 2020, after participating in NGFS discussions and activities for over a year before joining. NGFS supports the exchange of ideas, research, and best practices on the development of environment and climate risk management for the financial sector (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Dec. 18, 2020).
In July 2021, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appointed a climate change risk officer (see Banking and Finance Law Daily, Jul. 28, 2021). The OCC noted that the “appointment is part of the agency’s holistic efforts to ensure the federal banking system proactively manages the financial risks of climate change and its efforts to improve its energy efficiency and reduce its overall carbon footprint.” At the time, the OCC also announced it joined the NGFS as a member. "Prudently managing climate change risk is a safety and a soundness issue," former Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu stated at the time. The OCC became the third agency to leave the international climate organization in February 2025. On February 11, acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood issued a statement on the OCC’s withdrawal from the climate risk organization.
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