Government Relief Programs

Examples Include

Federal Reserve Bank Municipal Liquidity Facility. ArentFox Schiff helped establish and assist governmental entities access the $500 billion Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) for the Federal Reserve/Federal Reserve Bank of New York. MLF was created to assist state and local governmental entities, along with their governmental authorities, deal with the pandemic and resultant economic issues. As the Federal Reserve Bank had never undertaken a program like this, we had to develop the program from scratch, based upon our experience developing the $24 billion US Housing Market Stabilization Initiative described below. 

$24 Billion US Housing Market Stabilization Initiative. As part of its efforts to stabilize the housing system after its collapse, the Obama Administration launched two initiatives for state and local housing finance agencies to (i) help support low mortgage rates and expand resources for low- and middle-income borrowers during the housing crisis; and (ii) ameliorate the impact on the housing market of bank downgrades and lack of liquidity caused by the banking crisis. ArentFox Schiff attorneys worked closely with the US Treasury Department, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac (GSEs) to structure these $24 billion bond programs. We served as outside counsel to the GSEs on approximately 25 bond transactions aggregating approximately $8 billion. For this work, ArentFox Schiff was named a “Stand-Out” Law firm in the finance area by The Financial Times in the newspaper’s “US Innovative Lawyers 2011” report.

$1.6 Billion World Trade Center Bond Financing. ArentFox Schiff represented bondholders in the financing for 3 World Trade Center. The $1.6 billion transaction was the largest unrated tax-exempt bond financing ever done.  We were brought into the transaction to assist Silverstein Properties, as the developer, and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) with structuring this complicated transaction involving four tranches of debt so that the unrated bonds would be purchased at the lowest possible price.

CDFI Bond Guarantee Program. ArentFox Schiff serves as bond counsel to a nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) under U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institution Bond Guarantee Program. To date, ArentFox Schiff has represented the CDFI on four separate financings aggregating $430 million, including the first-ever such bond issuance under the Program. Bonds are guaranteed by Treasury and purchased by the Federal Financing Board.  Bond proceeds provide long-term capital not previously available to CDFIs, and inject new and substantial investment into underserved communities for affordable housing, community facilities, nonprofits, and small businesses.