We have participated in “affordable housing” programs for low- and moderate-income borrowers.  These programs have  included mortgages with LTV ratios between 90.01% to 95%, 95.01% to 97%, and 97.01% to 100% and liberalized  underwriting guidelines to achieve the programs’  objectives. Although our default experience on loans that we have insured  through these programs has been worse than on non-“af fordable housing” loans, the percentage of our RIF currently attributable  to these programs is not material. In July 2008, an overhaul of regulatory oversight of the GSEs was enacted.  The new provisions, contained within the  Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (“HERA”), encompass substantially all of the GSE operations.  This new law  abolished the former regulator for the GSEs, the Of fice of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and created a new regulator ,  the FHFA, in addition to other oversight reforms. In September 2008, the FHFA was appointed as the conservator of the GSEs to ensure that the GSEs operate in a safe and  sound manner. Since its inception, FHFA has undertaken actions to scale back the GSEs’  presence in the mortgage market,  strengthen their financial positions, and help struggling borrowers, including expanding the HARP  eligibility requirements.  Despite these actions, many policymakers have encouraged FHF A to take further action with respect to the GSEs to help  facilitate a broader and more robust recovery of the housing market. In response, FHF A released a strategic plan for the next  phase of the conservatorship, which would build a single platform infrastructure for the mortgage market going forward and  reduce the role of the GSEs, while increasing private sector participation and helping borrowers to avoid foreclosure. See “— Housing Finance Reform” below for further discussion. Under the Emergency Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (“EESA”) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment  Act of  2009, the loan limits for FHA-insured loans and the loan limits on GSE conforming loans in certain areas, were temporarily  increased to a maximum of $729,750. The Continuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act of 2011,  which was enacted into law in December 2010, extended these increased loan limits through September 201 1. The increase in  the loan limits for FHA-insured loans and GSE conforming loans was intended to increase the size of the secondary market for  purchasing and securitizing home loans and to encourage the GSEs to continue to provide liquidity to the residential mortgage  market, particularly in higher-priced areas, at a time when many banks and similar institutions had significantly curtailed their  activities due to the subprime lending crisis that developed during 2007. On October 1, 201 1, the higher FHA and GSE loan  limits expired and those limits decreased from $729,750 to $625,500. However , in November 2011, Congress raised FHA’s loan  limits for high cost areas back to $729,750, while keeping the GSE limits for high-cost areas at $625,500.  As a result, for the  first time in history, loan limits for FHA-insured loans are currently higher than loan limits for privately-insured loans.  This  effectively enables FHA to insure a broader range of loans than private mortgage insurers. HERA contains provisions intended to provide the FHA  with greater flexibility in establishing new products. HERA  also  authorized the FHA to refinance distressed mortgages for eligible borrowers in return for lenders and investors agreeing to write  down the amount of the original mortgage and the borrower sharing in the future appreciation with the FHA. In November 2011, HUD released its annual report to Congress on the financial condition of the FHA  Mutual Mortgage  Insurance Fund, which found that the FHA ’s single family mortgage and reverse mortgage insurance programs fell below the  statutorily-required capital ratio. The FHA has announced plans to take a series of steps in an ef fort to avoid a bailout of its  insurance fund, including, among others: •  raising its annual insurance premium on new mortgages by 10 basis points in  April 2013 (representing the third FHA  premium increase in less than one year); •  providing new relief for troubled borrowers with a streamlined short sale program and a reversal of a past policy that  cancels premiums for new borrowers as they pay of f their loan.  As a result of the FHA’s financial condition, Congress is now considering FHA  reform in addition to GSE reform. Given that  FHA and GSE reform have significant impacts on each other , as well as on borrower access to credit and the housing market  more broadly, we believe policymakers may consider both GSE reform and FHA  reform together. It is unclear whether these  reforms ultimately will be adopted, what form they may take and the impact on the private mortgage insurance industry . On February 11, 2011, the U.S. Presidential Administration (the “Administration”) released its proposal to reform the  U.S. housing finance market. In its proposal, the  Administration seeks to gradually reduce the federal government’ s role in  housing finance, including the ultimate wind-down of the GSEs, and to increase the role of private capital. 7.  Housing Finance Reform 52