The Rural Housing Service is proposing to amend its current regulation to delegate loan approval authority to preferred lenders, i.e., those whose loans have performed well and demonstrated strong underwriting capability, to benefit the program and its stakeholders.  Preferred lenders would be responsible for certifying that both the applicant and property meet all program eligibility and underwriting requirements and thus are eligible for the guarantee without the prior review by agency staff which takes place today. This change will speed up approval processing times, benefiting applicants, preferred lenders, and the Agency. The change to delegated authority would alter the risk management dynamics of the program, and with the proposed rule the agency should be able to proceed in a manner that assures its risk profile for the program would not increase.