Tennessee Predatory Lending Task Force:
The hearings were all held in 2002 and 2003 and last spring the new
Commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions, Kevin
Lavender, requested that he be given more time to study the impact of a
new law on his department. This fall he produced a draft of
possible legislation for comments by the industry and consumer
advocates. After comments by all, a revised draft was tendered
and additional comments were solicited. Comments on the second
draft are now being reviewed by the Commissioner and his staff for
further revision and conversion into a bill.
As stated before TNAMB has joined forces with the Tennessee Bankers
Association, the Tennessee Mortgage Bankers Association and the
Tennessee Consumer Finance Association to work on a reasonable bill for
Tennessee that protects consumers but does not harm the availability of
credit.
Licensing and Continuing Education Bill:
As part of the proposed "Tennessee Home Protection Act" TNAMB along
with our other industry partners are pushing for licensing and
continuing education requirements for all originators licensed under
the "Tennessee Residential Mortgage License" Law. We
continue to push for this important piece of legislation to set up
accountability for loan officers operating in Tennessee.
HUD’s proposed rule:
HUD’s proposed rule has been forwarded to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for their review. This was done after the
resignation of Secretary of HUD Mel Martinez resigned. Many had
thought that his resignation signaled the end of this ill-conceived
attempt at RESPA reform. However HUD moved during a congressional
recess after giving assurances that it would not which angered many in
congress including Representative Don Manzullo, Chairman of the House
Small Business Committee and Senator Richard Shelby, Chairman of the
Senate Banking Committee.
Congressman Manzullo held a congressional hearing in early January to call
HUD to task. This rule is very up in the air right now as no one
knows if it is revised from the original proposed rule which generated
45,000 letters and post cards to HUD through NAMB’s lobbying effort and
letter writing campaign. Congress had exerted considerable
pressure on HUD to look at modification of the Rule. Congressman
Manzullo has even gone so far as to say that if HUD went forward with
the rule in its current form he would introduce legislation to stop
implementation of the Rule.
