Ohio Housing Agency Issues RFP for Underwriters

CHICAGO — Firms interested in acting as underwriter for the Ohio Housing Finance Authority have until Oct. 14 at 4 p.m. to submit proposals.

The agency is seeking senior and co-senior underwriters to work on its single-family home program for at least the next two years, and possibly through Dec. 31, 2015.

Qualified firms will be approved by the OHFA board by Dec. 21, 2011, the agency said.

The request for proposals is available at www.ohiohome.org.

The request asks firms to detail their “commitment to Ohio and Ohio public finance,” and list all Ohio-based offices that trade or sell tax-exempt bonds. It also wants to know how many Ohioans work in the firm’s public finance department. The agency said it could modify the length of the term if a winning firm changes its Ohio presence.

The OHFA also wants interested underwriters to detail their ability and interest in providing credit facilities of $50 million or more to OHFA, and provide the firm’s “estimated exposure limit” for liquidity support. The RFP asks firms to detail whether they currently provide credit facilities to housing finance agencies and if so, if they are renewing existing facilities or allowing them to expire.

The OHFA is one of the state’s most regular issuers and has been relatively active under the federal New Issue Bond Program. President Obama launched the program in late 2009 to boost housing finance agency issuance of bonds for affordable housing that shelter low- to moderate-income families. Under the program, the Treasury Department agreed to buy state and local HFA bonds through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The NIBP required issuers to sell the bonds, usually short-term, by the end of 2009. Proceeds were placed in escrow, and each issuer is allowed to go to market up to six times through the end of 2011 to convert the securities to long-term debt.

The program is expected to expire at the end of the year, and the RFP asks respondents to make recommendations for OHFA’s first-time homebuyer loan program when the NIBP expires. Firms are also asked to make recommendations for restructuring the agency’s existing debt and liquidity support.

Moody’s Investors Service rates the OHFA’s single-family loan program Aaa with a negative outlook. The negative outlook is due to the agency’s exposure to problems with its guaranteed investment contracts.

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