Section 1218 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) requires the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to permit the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) until July 30, 2010, to use Affordable Housing Program (AHP) homeownership set-aside funds to refinance low- or moderate-income households' mortgage loans. On August 4, 2009, FHFA adopted an interim final rule that amended its AHP regulation to authorize the Banks to provide AHP direct subsidies through their members under their homeownership set-aside programs to assist low- or moderate-income households who qualify for refinancing assistance under eligible federal, state and local targeted refinancing programs, including the Hope for Homeowners Program and the Administration's Making Home Affordable Refinancing Program. The interim final rule also enhanced the ability of the Banks to respond to the mortgage crisis by providing greater flexibility to accelerate their future annual statutory AHP contributions for use in their AHP homeownership set- aside programs in the current year, and by permitting the Banks to adopt multiple housing needs under their Second District Priority scoring criterion under the AHP competitive application program. FHFA invited comments on the interim final rule and has taken all comments into consideration. Based on the comments received and the considerations discussed in the 2009 interim final rule, FHFA is adopting the interim final rule as a final rule, with the following changes. The final rule provides the Banks with greater flexibility to manage the timing of the counseling required for households, and gives the Banks discretion to permit members to determine, prior to counseling, whether a household could qualify, in conjunction with AHP subsidy, for refinancing under an eligible targeted refinancing program, or to refer households directly to eligible targeted refinancing programs for such determinations. The final rule also permits a Bank, in its discretion, to all