The Mortgage Bankers Association, American Bankers Association, and six other trade groups representing the financial services sector sent a letter Wednesday to Obama Administration policy makers calling for a delay in considering improved disclosures for mortgage borrowers under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).
The letter, addressed to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expresses concern that the government’s intention to combine two disclosures into a single integrated document may be one change too many for financial institutions to manage in the current environment.
The writers applaud the actions of the Federal Reserve and HUD to improve disclosures to borrowers and states that integrating them into a single document will greatly increase transparency and consumer understanding of the mortgage transaction, but states that the government must realize that the initiative, which is currently being managed by Special Advisor to the President, Elizabeth Warren and Treasury staff, is coming “in the midst of a surfeit of proposed and final regulations that require fundamental changes to the mortgage finance business model and a generation of systems which support it.”
Attached to the letter is a list of 28 rules affecting TILA, RESPA, loan officer compensation, the SAFE Act and other regulations that are in various stages ranging from proposal to comment to upcoming compliance deadlines. The associations state that these “have stretched thin the compliance capabilities of financial institutions. If these efforts are not coordinated, they state that the cumulative burden will “threaten the availability of housing finance options, and it will also be difficult for stakeholders to provide input to these changes.
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Joint Trade Letter on RESPA TILA Rule Changes
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