NAMB—The Association of Mortgage Professionals would like to congratulate all of the newly elected officials, as the association looks forward to working with them in the coming year to improve the housing finance industry.
“With the elections over, it is now time to look to 2017 to find ways to help housing which will be needed,” said NAMB President Fred Kreger, CMC. “NAMB will focus its efforts on removing impediments in the mortgage broker channel. With an anticipated increase in interest rates on the horizon, which will have a negative impact on housing, increasing participation in the mortgage broker channel will help consumers and small business mortgage brokers.”
The high cost of regulatory compliance and lack of safe harbors or agency guidance harms consumers because lenders are forced to increase requirements in order to protect against regulatory liability.
“These lending fears have led to a doubling of the cost of closing a mortgage that has hit an all-time high of more than $7,000 and upward,” said Kreger. “This is unsustainable and regulatory relief is in order to remedy this situation.”
Another recent change that increases consumer costs is the recent required increase in how small business mortgage brokers must pay their loan originators.
“The recent change by the U.S. Department of Labor should be rolled back,” said Kreger. “This change was for something that was not broken, and now will negatively impact small and large businesses across the U.S. This change only increases the cost of doing business, and this cost is unfortunately passed along to consumers. NAMB will be seeking regulatory and legislative changes to this end.”
In addition to the impact on the American consumer, these regulatory changes over the past few years have created unintended consequences impacting small business mortgage brokers.
“The three percent cap in the qualified mortgage (QM) rule harms smaller loan amounts, and consumers seeking such loans, since all the normal costs and fees cannot fit under the cap,” said Kreger. “Mortgage broker small businesses facing a cost cap, but their cost of doing business keeps increasing: Healthcare costs, rent, regulatory compliance costs, and, as discussed above, a federally-mandated increase in personnel costs. This results in mortgage companies not being able to participate in offering loans to consumers.”
While NAMB does not see GSE reform as a high priority this session of Congress, the consensus seems to point to 2018 as an opportune time to tackle reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
“There are issues and concerns with loan-level price adjustments that will continue to be watched, and as NAMB has said in the past, should be revisited by the GSEs,” said Kreger. “NAMB is very pleased with the risk reduction measures recently implemented by Fannie Mae and soon to be implemented by Freddie Mac.”
As the presidential transition begins to take shape and the Trump Administration replaces the Obama Administration in January, NAMB will continue to lead the way for mortgage professionals nationwide, fostering their current relationships on Capitol Hill and establishing new ones with the newly-elected constituents of NAMB’s membership nationwide.
“In addition to working with the new Presidential Cabinet and other agencies, NAMB is looking forward to working with the CFPB on their five-year regulatory review of regulations on loan officer compensation and other regulations in need of review because of the harm to consumers or business operations,” said Kreger. “NAMB will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of mortgage professionals in 2017, and looks forward to the continued membership and support of its dedicated members.”
