Dear Reader,
The latest administration solution for the mortgage crisis — the solution Obama unveiled in his State of the Union Address — sounds a lot like the previous mortgage panaceas, none of which actually worked. And while bankers are digesting the latest mortgage relief proposals, bank regulators were resisting legislation intended to make bank examinations more fair and objective. How could anyone object to that?
Pratt's Letter Today
White House Elaborates on Housing Program
The Obama administration has clarified and explained the mix of new housing policies that the president outlined in his State of the Union speech. Depending on how you count, the latest program is the fourth or fifth effort by the administration to help the housing market recover; each new program has met with mixed results at best.
The heart of the president’s latest plan is a program that would provide borrowers who are current on their payments with an opportunity to refinance and take advantage of current low interest rates. This program would streamline existing programs ... Read More
This Week
Last Word ...
“This is not a serious plan to help the nation’s housing market. This is just more of the same from an administration that offers expensive program after expensive program, none of which have worked to help struggling homeowners. President Obama is proposing to get out of the hole we’re in by digging deeper. He wants lenders to make more of the same risky loans without documentation of income or ability to repay what got us into this mess in the first place … This could very well set us up for a bailout of FHA.” — House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), on the administration’s latest housing program proposal.
In the News
What Others Are Saying
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- FTC Bans Billing Scheme Operators
- OCC Announces Directors Seminar
- FDIC Sets Compliance Seminars
- Fed Reports on Foreign Exchange Rates
- FDIC Conference to Consider “Future of Community Banking”
- Mortgage Rates at Record Lows
- FHFA to Prequalify REO Investors
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened its doors last month. What does the new agency have up its sleeve? What will they target first and how will it affect community banks?
The CFPB has listed the following priorities: mortgage loans, remittances, and data reporting on consumer financial services. More recently, the CFPB has more particularly identified mortgage servicing practices and integration of the RESPA and TILA initial disclosures. The agency’s decisions almost certainly will affect community banks.
Elizabeth Warren, former head of the CFPB, as the lone witness for a July 14, 2011, hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, more than held her own in ... Read More
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