The potential consequences include rising interest rates, dropping home values, a resurgence of foreclosures and a dramatic, perhaps generational loss of consumer confidence.
Only a strong QM rule can prevent a repeat of the past and protect consumers from the type of risky and irresponsible lending that preceded the foreclosure crisis.
While ICBA supports further study, we hope Congress will come to the conclusion that it should never have been proposed for financial institutions that have no international exposures or are not of a certain size.
Few legislators will have much appetite for setting bank capital policy, but it would be a gross error to mistake that discretion for lack of interest in what those policies will do to local economies.
Press releases continue to repeat Treasury's nonsensical claims about the "profit" the program has produced for taxpayers. But it remains to be seen whether not letting banks go out of business actually benefited anyone.
The Uniform Law Commission's commercial code excludes debit cards, which is problematic since courts tend to reject class-action challenges that conflict with it.
Well-intentioned policies are causing inadvertent redlining. Our proposed Dignity Mortgage would show there are few if any additional risks of lending to the large cohort of presently excluded prospective homebuyers.
An analysis of Senate rulings indicates voters who believe in strengthening customer protections should cast their ballots for Democrats, while voters who believe banks should not have to answer to a consumer regulator should choose Republicans.
