common good. thanks to the work of community affairs staff at the boston and cleveland reserve banks and here at the board, we have been able to document many of these lessons in the conference publication. while i don ’ t want to spoil the plot, i do want to use the remainder of my time to preview some of the most important lessons about community stabilization. first, we have learned that effective interventions emerge when there is a full understanding of mortgage markets, their dynamics, and incentives. several articles describe the steep learning curve that policymakers have navigated in order to effectively implement the nsp created by congress and to utilize the $ 6 billion in funds made available through the first two rounds of the program. these funds were provided to help stabilize neighborhoods through the acquisition, rehabilitation, financing, demolition, and land banking of properties that are blighting communities. while nsp funds were intended to provide an aggressive response to the forces destabilizing communities, time limits, such as the requirement that grantees obligate funds within 18 months, often underestimated the time needed to navigate the property disposition process, especially when paired with the myriad other requirements and limitations on uses of the funds. the complexities of the secondary mortgage market have made it difficult for local governments and community organizations to ascertain who owns a particular property, much less arrange for its purchase in a timely way. the pooling of mortgages in securities further complicates the process, making it difficult for municipalities to acquire one or two properties among many. several articles in our publication discuss the challenges of using nsp funds, particularly in a competitive environment where investors have the resources to purchase properties in bulk without the constraints related to neighborhood stabilization plans. craig nickerson ’ s article, for example, describes the efforts of the national community stabilization trust ( ncst ), which was established to create local capacity so that communities could effectively acquire, manage, rehabilitate, and sell foreclosed properties. despite a slow start, ncst now has transactional expertise, development infrastructure, asset management skills, land banking approaches, and the comprehensive planning necessary to effectively utilize nsp funds for reo acquisition. i also commend the article by stergios ( terry ) theologides, which serves as a primer on servicing arrangements, the fiduciary relationship between servicers and investors, and the imbedded incentives that drive servicer decisionmaking. it is a cogent explanation of a complex set

in both the february 2020 and 2021 outgoing rotation groups. earnings are weekly and were compared with all members of the outgoing rotation group in february 2020. 2 see the federal reserve banks'small business credit survey : 2021 report on employer firms ( pdf ) fielded in september – october 2020. 3 see the frbs'small business credit survey in note 2 as well as small business credit survey : 2021 report on firms owned by people of color ( pdf ) released on april 15, 2021. 4 data comparisons are for the period between february 2020 and march 2021. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches