Jun 13 2011

Know Before You Owe, Credit Unions, and Community Banks

By Elizabeth Vale

As you have been reading here on the blog, we released the first draft versions of a combined Good Faith Estimate and Truth in Lending disclosure form in May. Here on the website, we asked for public feedback through the Know Before You Owe project. We’ve also been talking to some of the institutions that will have to use these forms with their customers.

Shortly after Know Before You Owe launched, I was a guest at the New Hampshire and Vermont Bankers Associations’ annual compliance conference. I was struck by participants’ enthusiastic response to the project. Many attendees mentioned that they were impressed not only by the lower burden imposed by the draft forms, but also by the CFPB’s eagerness to solicit feedback at an early stage of the process.

We also spoke with community bankers from Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts when they stopped by the CFPB office. Steve Antonakes, the CFPB’s Assistant Director for Large Bank Supervision, and I answered a variety of questions and gathered input from individual bankers about each of their views. One banker suggested that we conduct outreach to the software providers who help create mortgage disclosure forms. This will help bring the technological concerns around building these forms into the process.

Later that afternoon, we discussed the Know Before You Owe forms with individuals from 20 credit unions who each shared their own opinions. This ad hoc meeting lead to valuable, specific insights on what mortgage information works best for consumers.

We are committed to remaining attentive to the concerns of credit unions and community banks throughout the development of CFPB priorities, and we look forward to continuing this dialogue for future CFPB initiatives.

A mortgage loan market that works for all Americans benefits from input from many places. We wanted to make sure individuals from credit unions and community banks were heard from alongside the consumers they serve and other stakeholders.

The CFPB plans to issue a regulatory proposal on mortgage disclosure for public comment in the future.

PFreston

Good job, excellent update! Just knowing that progress is finally being made…even if it’s only very preliminary…is very encouraging.
Phyllis Yanagihara

As a settlement agent I am thrilled to have this early dialog with CFPB regarding what the consumers actually feel about these disclosures as well as the current mandated HUD1 settlement statement. Having worked a closing desk since prior to RESPA inception, it has been an interesting ride. I believe that the agencies involved have taken Sen. Proxmire’s original vision too far and have made the entire process more confusing to consumers especially since all of the lender’s do not have the same understanding of requirements. This is a fine time to re-employ that old standard of “Kiss”. Keeping it simple benefits everyone both for the understanding of important information and keeping the cost down. All of this paperwork generated does have a real cost, both in the creation of it and the retention of it.
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HI,

Great job guys,

Its really nice article guys.

Thanks
Gilngll

thank you as I tried Making Home Affordable and found it the worst professional experience of my life; they asked for and lost my paper workk 6 btimes; now trying to figure out another mortgage strategy in a local market that has plummeted my home value.
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Know before you owe sounds like a pretty good initiative. I was actually a mystery shopper one time to find out if there was predatory lending going on and it was really enlightening. I think every borrower should know what they are getting into as far as debt they will be saddled with, and I can’t believe there ever was such things as “liars loans.”