(a) Promote financing purposes and improve or maintain collectibility. The State Director is authorized to perform the following functions when the action is determined likely to promote the loan or grant purposes without jeopardizing collectibility of the loan or imparing the adequacy of the security; will strengthen the security; or will facilitate, improve, or maintain the orderly collection of the loan:

(1) Approve requests for permission to modify bylaws, articles of incorporation, or other rules and regulations of recipients, including changes in rate or fee schedules. Changes affecting the recipient's legal organizational structure must be approved by OGC.

(2) Consent to requests by the recipient to incur additional indebtedness, subject to applicable Rural Development instructions and covenants in the loan or grant agreement.

(3) Renew existing security instruments.

(4) Approve the extension or expansion of facilities and services.

(5) Require additional security when:

(i) Existing security is inadequate and the loan or security instruments obligate the borrower to give additional security; or

(ii) The loan is in default and additional security is acceptable in lieu of other servicing actions.

(6) Release properties being sold by the borrower from mortgages securing Rural Renewal loans if the amount of the notes and mortgages given by the purchaser to the borrower equal the present market value and are assigned and pledged to Rural Development, and any money payable to the borrower is applied as an extra payment on the Rural Renewal loan.

(7) Approve requests for rights-of-way and easements and any subordination necessary in connection with such requests.

(b) Referrals to National Office. All proposed servicing actions which the State Director is not authorized by this subpart to approve will be referred to the National Office.

(c) Defeasance of Rural Development indebtedness. Defeasance is the use of invested proceeds from a new bond issue to repay outstanding bonds in accordance with the repayment schedule of the outstanding bonds. The new issue supersedes the contractual agreements the borrower agreed to in the prior issue. Defeasance, or amending outstanding loan instruments and agreements to permit defeasance, of Rural Development debt instruments is not authorized, since defeasance limits, or eliminates entirely, the borrower's ability to comply with statutory refinancing requirements implemented by subpart F of part 1951 of this chapter.