Too many rules: Lender leader calls for ‘traffic cop’

The Mortgage Bankers Association must push Washington lawmakers for greater transparency and coordination of the myriad of lending rules coming from regulators, said David Stevens, the organization’s president and chief executive.

“We are calling on leadership in Washington – whichever administration is in the White House come January – to create a role for housing policy coordination, a traffic cop for all new rules,” Stevens said at the MBA’s annual conference in Chicago. “This new liaison for policy would ensure that regulations complement one another rather than conflict.”

The liaison the MBA envisions would coordinate rules coming from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the government-sponsored enterprises and other federal housing agencies to make sure guidelines are not redundant or cumbersome on all lenders, especially smaller firms, Stevens said.

The ultimate risk, he said, is the exit of reliable and safe lenders resulting in less competition in the marketplace.

“It might not reduce the number of masters we serve – but it would at least make them talk to one another,” Stevens said of the proposed liaison.

Stevens noted that a fundamental feeling of uncertainty remains in Washington over the role of mortgage lenders and he believes now is the time for the MBA to step up its interaction with lawmakers on how to lay out the future of housing.