Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007
MORTGAGE REFORM AND ANTI-PREDATORY LENDING ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2007)
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Mr. MEEKS of New York. Madam Chairman, over the past few years, the Financial Services Committee has been working to strike the right balance between protecting home buyers without eliminating the viability of the subprime mortgage market. Under the leadership of Chairman Frank, I believe we have struck that balance in a bipartisan manner. This is why I wholeheartedly agree and wanted to be an original cosponsor of this legislation.
Madam Chairman, one of the new requirements of this bill is that all mortgage originators must be licensed to serve the public. The purpose of this requirement is to have a depository of all mortgage originators and hopefully eliminate from the system those loan originators that take advantage of borrowers. I know in my district this has been a real problem. Along with the fingerprinting and the pulling of a credit report, mortgage originators must also participate in 20 hours of education in a program approved by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry which is to be developed and maintained by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators.
Madam Chairman, I am very supportive of this aspect of the legislation. But I am concerned that it leaves open an opportunity for a conflict of interest. The conflict would take place if the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System were to decide to offer the education requirement themselves.
Currently, 34 States have mortgage education requirements for loan originators licensed in those respective States. This training is conducted by many small business providers who are approved to offer mortgage education by each State's regulating bodies. My amendment is quite simple. It does the following:
A, to maintain the independence of the approval process, the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry shall not directly or indirectly offer educational courses for pre licensure or continuing education for mortgage originators.
And, B, in approving courses under this act, the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing Systems and Registry shall apply reasonable standards in the review and approval of courses.
Mr. Chairman, to make it simple, I used to be a judge. A judge cannot preside over a case in which he is the litigant. This amendment has been discussed with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, and they do not object. I think it is a simple amendment.
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