Financial Services/Fair Credit Reporting Act Issues
These topics will keep you up to date on the current financial services, the credit crisis, and Fair Credit Reporting Act (including FACT Act) issues.
If you have any questions about the topics listed below, please contact Jeff Lischer at 202-383-1117, or Tony Hutchinson at 202-383-1120.
Credit Crisis and Real Estate Markets
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was signed by President Bush into law on October 3, 2008. NAR is working with Congress and the Administration to make sure the measures included in this bill are implemented quickly, with the needs of Main Street placed front and center.
Government Sponsored Enterprises Reform
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the dominant institutions in the residential secondary mortgage market. In May 2007, the House passed a bill to overhaul the regulatory oversight of the housing GSEs and creates a strong, independent safety and soundness regulator with broad powers analogous to current banking regulators.
More recently, strict limitation on the loan amounts that the GSEs can purchase is hurting the liquidity of our national mortgage markets.
NAR supports strengthening GSE financial safety and soundness regulation through an independent agency that recognizes and facilitates their unique corporate structures and public missions that assure stability and liquidity that in the nation’s housing finance system.
See also:
GSEs Conservatorship>
NAR's GSEs Principles>
Banking and Commerce
Banking is financial in nature. Real estate is commercial. Throughout the years Congress has defended its Depression-era policy that the two should not be mixed.
Subprime Lending
Abusive and predatory lending practices are a serious problem for our nation's communities. Because of abuses in the subprime market, families are losing their homes and savings, foreclosure rates are higher, and some neighborhoods face increased vacancy rates. Empty neighborhoods, or those where the majority of houses are for sale, can be perceived as blighted. This leads to declining prices and inevitably devastates the strength and stability of those communities and the families who live there.
Federal Preemption of State Banking Laws
Despite objections from Congress, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued a final rule identifying types of state real estate lending and other banking laws that are preempted for national banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Bank One) and their operating subsidiaries.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act & Your Credit History
Know What's in Your Credit Report
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act)
Rules for Disposing of Consumer Report Information
The Check 21 Act
Banks Now Able To Cash Checks Faster
