---
kind: "section"
citation: "12 U.S.C. § 3801"
title: "12"
title_heading: "Banks and Banking"
number: "3801"
heading: "Findings and purpose"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/12/3801"
units:
  - "Chapter 39 — Alternative Mortgage Transactions"
---

# §3801. Findings and purpose

- (a) The Congress hereby finds that—
  - (1) increasingly volatile and dynamic changes in interest rates have seriously impared[^1] the ability of [housing creditors](/usc/12/3802.md?p=2) to provide [consumers](/usc/12/5481.md?p=4) with fixed-term, fixed-rate [credit](/usc/12/5481.md?p=7) secured by interests in real property, cooperative housing, manufactured homes, and other dwellings;
  - (2) [alternative mortgage transactions](/usc/12/3802.md?p=1) are essential to the provision of an adequate supply of [credit](/usc/12/5481.md?p=7) secured by residential property necessary to meet the demand expected during the 1980’s; and
  - (3) the Comptroller of the Currency, the National [Credit](/usc/12/5481.md?p=7) Union Administration, and the [Director](/usc/12/5481.md?p=10) of the Office of Thrift Supervision have recognized the importance of [alternative mortgage transactions](/usc/12/3802.md?p=1) and have adopted regulations authorizing federally chartered [depository institutions](/usc/12/1861.md?p=b-4) to engage in alternative [mortgage](/usc/12/1707.md?p=a) financing.
- (b) It is the purpose of this chapter to eliminate the discriminatory impact that those regulations have upon nonfederally chartered [housing creditors](/usc/12/3802.md?p=2) and provide them with parity with federally chartered institutions by authorizing all [housing creditors](/usc/12/3802.md?p=2) to make, purchase, and enforce [alternative mortgage transactions](/usc/12/3802.md?p=1) so long as the transactions are in conformity with the regulations issued by the Federal agencies.

## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original. Probably should be “impaired”.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 97–320, title VIII, § 802, Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1545; Pub. L. 101–73, title VII, § 744(c), Aug. 9, 1989, 103 Stat. 438.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1989—Subsec. (a)(3). Pub. L. 101–73 substituted “Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision” for “Federal Home Loan Bank Board”.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Pub. L. 97–320, title VIII, § 807(a), Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1548, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter] shall be effective upon enactment [Oct. 15, 1982].”

### Short Title

Pub. L. 97–320, title VIII, § 801, Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1545, provided that: “This title [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act of 1982’.”

### Identification, Description and Publication of Regulations Inapplicable To, or Conformation of Regulations for Use Of Nonfederally Chartered Housing Creditors

Pub. L. 97–320, title VIII, § 807(b), Oct. 15, 1982, 96 Stat. 1548, provided that: “Within sixty days of the enactment of this title [Oct. 15, 1982], the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board shall identify, describe, and publish those portions or provisions of their respective regulations that are inappropriate for (and thus inapplicable to), or that need to be conformed for the use of, the nonfederally chartered housing creditors to which their respective regulations apply, including without limitation, making necessary changes in terminology to conform the regulatory and disclosure provisions to those more typically associated with various types of transactions including credit sales.”