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| THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD |
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| BUILDING SUSTAINABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP: |
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| RESPONSIBLE LENDING AND INFORMED CONSUMER CHOICE |
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| PUBLIC MEETING |
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| Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
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| 230 South LaSalle Street |
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| Chicago, Illinois 60604 |
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| Wednesday, June 7, 2006 |
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| 8:30 a.m. |
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| ATTENDEES: |
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| |
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| GOVERNOR MARK W. OLSON |
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| Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System |
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| |
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| MR. LEONARD CHANIN |
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| Associate Director |
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| Division of Consumer and Community Affairs |
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| |
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| MS. SANDRA BRAUNSTEIN |
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| Director |
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| Division of Consumer and Community Affairs |
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| |
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| MS. PAULETTE MYRIE-HODGE (Panel 1) |
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| Assistant Vice President |
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| Supervision and Regulation |
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| Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
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| |
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| MS. ALICIA WILLIAMS (Panels 2 & 3) |
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| Vice President, Economic Research Department |
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| Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
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| |
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| |
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| |
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| PANELISTS: |
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| PANEL 1: |
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| MS. DIANE THOMPSON |
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| Attorney, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance |
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| Foundation |
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| |
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| MR. THOMAS JAMES |
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| Deputy Attorney General, State of Illinois |
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| |
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| MR. DANIEL LINDSEY |
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| Supervisory Attorney, Home Ownership Preservation |
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| Project, Legal Assistance Foundation of |
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| Metropolitan Chicago |
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| |
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| MR. GEOFF SMITH |
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| Project Director, Woodstock Institute |
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| |
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| MR. JAMES NABORS, II |
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| National Association of Mortgage Brokers |
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| |
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| MR. MICHAEL WILLIAMS |
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| Vice President for Legislative Affairs, The Bond |
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| Market Association |
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| |
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| MR. WRIGHT ANDREWS |
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| National Home Equity Mortgage Association |
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| |
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| PANEL 2: |
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| MR. SCOTT MASON |
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| Director, Structured Finance Ratings, Residential |
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| Mortgage Backed Securities, Standard & Poor's |
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| |
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| |
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| MR. KENNETH POSNER |
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| Managing Director, Specialty and Mortgage Finance, |
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| Morgan Stanley |
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| |
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| MR. ANTHONY PENNINGTON-CROSS |
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| Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis |
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| |
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| MR. KEITH ERNST |
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| Senior Policy Counsel |
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| Center for Responsible Lending |
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| |
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| MR. ROBERTO QUERCIA |
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| Associate Professor, Department of City and |
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| Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at |
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| Chapel Hill |
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| |
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| MR. MICHAEL STATEN |
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| Distinguished Professor and Director, Credit |
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| Research Center, Georgetown University |
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| |
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| PANEL 3: |
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| MR. DAVID ROSE |
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| Director of Research and Technology, National |
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| Training and Information Center |
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| |
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| MR. MICHAEL SHEA |
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| Executive Director, ACORN Housing Corporation |
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| |
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| MR. BRUCE GOTTSCHALL |
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| Executive Director, Neighborhood Housing Services |
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| of Chicago |
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| |
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| MS. HEIDI COPPOLA |
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| Vice President and Director, Public Policy and |
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| Issue Management, Citigroup |
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| |
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| MS. LORETTA ABRAMS |
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| Vice President for Consumer Affairs, HSBC |
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| |
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| GOVERNOR OLSON: It's 8:30, we can get |
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| started. I suspect that people will be drifting in |
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| and out over the course of the day, but we are |
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| looking forward to a very full and free discussion |
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| as these issues always tend to generate. Time is |
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| precious, so we will want to get started. |
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| I'm Mark Olson from the Federal |
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| Reserve Board in Washington DC. We have a couple |
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| Fed colleagues with me this morning. Leonard |
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| Chanin, who is Associate Director of the Consumer |
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| and Community Affairs. Sandra Braunstein, the |
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| Director of Community Affairs. We have Paulette |
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| Myrie-Hodge, from Supervision and Regulation here |
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| in Chicago. And it may appear that we are playing |
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| tricks on you, but Alicia Williams -- Alicia, will |
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| you identify yourself -- also with the Consumer |
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| Affairs here in Chicago, will be part of our |
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| panel. |
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| Welcome, Diane. I was just |
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| commenting that we will be introducing the |
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| panelists in a moment. |
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| There are a couple of rules that we |
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| have instituted. As you know, in Washington DC, |
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| the House of Representatives is a large, very |
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| diverse group. Let me back up. |
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| The Senate. The Senate thinks of |
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| itself as a group that does not need to have a |
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| great deal of rules. They think of themselves as |
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| exclusively gentlemen and gentlewomen and not in |
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| need of a great deal of rules. So chaos tends to |
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| prevail in the Senate. |
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| The House is under no illusion. So |
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| they have a lot of rules, and it seems to run a lot |
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| better. |
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| We are sort of half way between |
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| here. We've decided the rules make a certain |
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| amount of sense. In part because we want to make |
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| sure that the time is well used, and in significant |
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| part because at the end of the program today is |
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| when we have our open mike to allow people who are |
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| not on the panels to have a chance to speak. |
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| So for our panel members this |
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| morning, we are going to ask each of them to have |
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| an opening statement. And the opening statement |
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| will be five minutes, which will be timed by the |
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| two timekeepers sitting right out in front, so you |
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| can watch carefully how that time goes. |
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| When you are speaking on issues that |
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| you're familiar with and that you feel strongly |
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| about, five minutes goes very quickly. And I know |
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| that from personal experience and I know that from |
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| watching. So it is not that we think that you're |
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| abusive of time privileges, it's just that we think |
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| we are being respectful. |
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| This first panel will go from 9:00 to |
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| 10:30. We may get started earlier, and if we get |
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| started earlier, that's just fine. But then we |
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| will take a break. We will have a second panel. |
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| We will then break for lunch and have a third. |
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| Then at 3:00 o'clock without fail we |
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| will leave that hour for comments from people from |
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| the audience. Those of you who would care to |
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| speak, that will be a three minute time |
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| opportunity. It will also be timed. And we ask |
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| that you sign in. Now, where are they -- who is |
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| accommodating -- |
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| MS. BRAUNSTEIN: It's outside of the room. |
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| GOVERNOR OLSON: It's outside the room. If you |
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| care to speak during that time, we'll do some other |
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| reminders, but if you care to speak during that |
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| time please sign in and we will then recognize you |
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| for that purpose. |
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| Are there any other house rules that |
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| we need to talk about before we move on? |
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| MS. BRAUNSTEIN: Maybe just how this little |
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| timer works here. |
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| GOVERNOR OLSON: A yellow light comes on when |
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| it's two, and then the red light comes on at five |
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| and you're done, okay. |
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| The HOEPA hearings are a |
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| continuation. Actually, four years ago was the |
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| last time that the HOEPA hearings were held. And |
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| in that four years it's hard to imagine that as |
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| much change could have taken place in the industry |
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| as has taken place. And so we are going to be |
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| doing a series of four HOEPA hearings now around |
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| the country. |
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| The purpose of the hearings are |
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| threefold. The first purpose of the hearing is to |
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| have a determination of the extent to which the |
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| HOEPA regs that were passed in '02, were put in |
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| place in '02, are effective. And we will be |
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| hearing from a number of groups about that. |
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| The second purpose of it is to look |
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| at the growth of the nontraditional loan product. |
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| The nontraditional loan product is certainly the |
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| most significant change that has taken place in the |
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| marketplace during that interim period, and it has |
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| raised some real issues with respect to the |
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| mortgage industry. It has certainly allowed for a |
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| great deal of flexibility and has brought a lot |
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| more dollars into the home loan market. But it has |
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| also raised some fundamental issues. So that is an |
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| issue that we will want to look at carefully. |
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| The third thing that we want to talk |
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| about is the channels the mortgage product is |
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| delivering, because that is a very significant |
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| issue. And as the mortgage product continues to |
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| grow and as there are more players in the |
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| marketplace, that is a significant change that we |
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| will want to take into consideration. |
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| The four goals for the program, two |
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| very hard goals and probably one that I would |
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| describe as more of a soft -- two that are probably |
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| softer but equally important. The first goal is to |
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| look at whether or not there needs to be an |
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| update. Whether or not we need to make changes in |
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| the HOEPA regs and the threshold amounts that were |
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| in place in '02. |
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| The second thing, the second |
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| objective is to review Reg Z. That will be also |
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| one of the goals of this and one of the objectives |
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| of this session. |
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| The two softer ones, one is to |
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| determine whether or not there are going to be some |
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| areas of further education that we would like to -- |
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| any additional education that we can do from the |
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| standpoint of the Fed. |
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| And the fourth would be to identify |
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| areas that might be important targets for further |
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| research. |
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| So I think that is an ambitious |
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| agenda. But in a time of significant change, I |
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| think that is very important. |
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| There are four key constituencies, if |
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| you will, or four key variables in the home loan |
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| phenomenon. And those participants have differing |
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| but important areas of responsibility. |
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| The first, of course, is the |
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| consumer. In a world of free markets and in a |
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| world of free choice, you begin with a presumption |
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| that the consumer is responsible for his or her own |
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| actions. That has to be a fundamental statement |
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| that is made as we consider the fact that there is |
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| a wide range of products that are available and a |
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| wide number of choices. You can't provide an |
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| environment where those kinds of choices and those |
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| kinds of options exist without a fundamental |
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| presumption that the consumer is responsible for |
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| their own choices. |
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| Number two is the lender. And I'm |
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| going to spend a few minutes -- maybe not minutes, |
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| but a little while talking about that, because I |
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| think that that is so critical. |
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| Some of you know and some of you have |
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| heard me say that I was in the banking industry for |
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| about 16 years. During that period of time I was |
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| never in the mortgage lending business, but over |
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| those 16 years I was probably involved in closing |
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| maybe 100 mortgage loans. So I thought in a |
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| relative sense I knew a lot about the mortgage |
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| business and closing mortgage loans. |
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| Yet every time I have sat down to |
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| close my own mortgage loan, I have felt at a |
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| disadvantage in terms of my understanding. So I |
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| can imagine what a first time home buyer and a |
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| first time recipient of a mortgage loan would feel |
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| when they are confronted by all of the issues and |
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| all of the choices and all of the paperwork. |
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| There is a fundamental asymmetry in |
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| knowledge that is built into that process between |
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| the mortgage originator and the provider of the |
4 | 13 |
| mortgage and the recipient of the mortgage, and |
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| that can't change. That will always be the case. |
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| So there is a real responsibility |
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| with the mortgage lenders, I think, not to be |
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| abusive of that process. To make sure that they |
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| are recognizing that asymmetry and they are |
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| providing to a great deal the extent of appropriate |
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| education, the appropriate explanation, the |
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| appropriate assistance in choices that takes place |
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| with that product. |
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| Now, I would also say that in most |
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| cases with most mortgage products over the years |
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| there has been a check and balance that has been |
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| built into the system in this respect. The |
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| mortgages for the most part have been carefully |
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| underwritten. And the significant development that |
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| has taken place in the mortgage market over the |
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| years, and I'm talking now over a 20-year time |
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| horizon, was the development of the secondary |
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| market. It was that secondary market that provided |
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| access to a wider range of funding for the mortgage |
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| product. And that wider range of funding has |
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| brought more people into the marketplace, has |
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| allowed for homeownership for a wider number of |
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| people than could have taken place without it. |
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| And historically, that secondary |
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| market was a conforming product. Was a |
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| Fannie-Freddie conforming product typically, and |
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| that Fannie-Freddie conforming product was very |
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| carefully underwritten. |
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| Today with the new nontraditional |
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| products and the voracious appetite of the |
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| secondary market for that product, it is not as |
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| clear that we have that same check and balance, |
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| that the underwriting is done as carefully. That |
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| the market is taking into consideration the same |
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| ability to pay and the same risk aversion that had |
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| been the case before. |
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| I don't know that for sure, I'll have |
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| to be honest with you. We've looked at that very |
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| carefully, and we wonder. We ask the question is |
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| risk appropriately measured in the secondary |
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| market? |
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| That's why we have here on some of |
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| our panels some of the secondary market |
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| participants that can help us understand that. |
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| Because that has, on the one hand, significantly |
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| widened the opportunities for mortgages, but it |
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| brings in certain questions with respect to risk. |
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| So that I think will be a fundamental focus of our |
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| discussion here. |
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| Group number three that is of |
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| interest are the community groups and the consumer |
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| advocacy groups. It's so clear from our |
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| perspective, and I speak I think on behalf of my |
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| Fed colleagues, and it is also clear from my |
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| background in the banking industry, that the |
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| consumer groups, and particularly the community |
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| groups, are very close to that market in a way. |
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| Especially in the emerging markets and the low-mod |
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| marketplace where the education needs to take place |
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| and where the opportunities to use financial |
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| products provide such a positive opportunity, but |
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| at the same time if those products are not used |
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| well, you could so easily get into a deep hole that |
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| is very difficult to get out of. |
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| And working in partnership with the |
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| consumer and the community groups, this makes |
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| tremendous sense for everybody, so the ability of |
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| that group to provide education, to provide a |
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| feedback actually. And I think we are going to |
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| hear from a lot of community groups today who will |
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| help do that. |
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| The fourth group who has an ownership |
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| interest in this whole area is, of course, the |
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| regulators, and that's why we are here. We are the |
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| rule writers. In almost all cases it's Congress |
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| that gives us a directive. We rarely, if ever, |
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| initiate rules. Congress tells us, gives us the |
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| outline, the framework, just as they have done with |
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| HMDA and they have done with HOEPA and Reg Z and a |
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| lot of others, and it is our responsibility to |
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| write the rules. And that's why we are here. |
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| A number of my other Fed colleagues |
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| are here, Jane, Jim. Would those of you -- would |
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| my Fed colleagues please raise their hands and |
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| identify themselves. Okay. So we don't have you |
19 | 16 |
| outnumbered yet, but you have us outnumbered only |
20 | 16 |
| by about three to one so far. So I'm sure that |
21 | 16 |
| more people will be coming in. |
22 | 16 |
| Again, for those of you who are still |
23 | 16 |
| coming in, welcome to these sessions. We're |
24 | 16 |
| proceeding on schedule, and we hope if we can even |
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| get a jump on the start time, we would like to do |
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| that. |
3 | 17 |
| We will be hearing from three |
4 | 17 |
| panels. And then at 3:00 o'clock today those of |
5 | 17 |
| you who would like to speak that were not on one of |
6 | 17 |
| the panels, we would ask you to sign in and we are |
7 | 17 |
| going to do that in three minute increments |
8 | 17 |
| beginning at 3:00 o'clock. |
9 | 17 |
| Sandy, anybody else, is there |
10 | 17 |
| anything else we need to say at the front end of |
11 | 17 |
| the process? |
12 | 17 |
| We will then begin with the |
13 | 17 |
| panelists. And we will go clockwise starting with |
14 | 17 |
| Jane. And if you would please just introduce |
15 | 17 |
| yourself briefly. |
16 | 17 |
| Starting with Diane. It was a senior |
17 | 17 |
| moment there, Diane. I apologize for that. And |
18 | 17 |
| identify yourself. And if you would, then, the |
19 | 17 |
| group you're with and your five minute statement. |
20 | 17 |
| And then after the five minute statement, then we |
21 | 17 |
| will get questions from our panel here and an |
22 | 17 |
| opportunity for interaction. |
23 | 17 |
| MS. THOMPSON: Good morning. Thank you, |
24 | 17 |
| Governor Olson and Fed staff. I'm very glad to |
1 | 18 |
| have the opportunity to be here. My name is Diane |
2 | 18 |
| Thomas. I'm a legal services lawyer and I work in |
3 | 18 |
| East St. Louis where I primarily represent low |
4 | 18 |
| income homeowners who are threatened with the loss |
5 | 18 |
| of their home. |
6 | 18 |
| We have seen in the last ten years an |
7 | 18 |
| unbelievable rise in the amount of destructive home |
8 | 18 |
| mortgage lending. The communities have literally |
9 | 18 |
| been devastated. I think it's fair to say that |
10 | 18 |
| there is probably not a block in the city of East |
11 | 18 |
| St. Louis in which one or more homes have not been |
12 | 18 |
| foreclosed. Many of those homes sit vacant for |
13 | 18 |
| years. It's a terrible, terrible blight on the |
14 | 18 |
| community. |
15 | 18 |
| The typical client we now see in our |
16 | 18 |
| office is a young working couple or a single |
17 | 18 |
| mother. Some elderly people on fixed income, but |
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| many first time home buyers. By and large, we are |
19 | 18 |
| seeing first time home buyers who are being put |
20 | 18 |
| into adjustable rate mortgages, typically at |
21 | 18 |
| interest rates higher than what they're eligible |
22 | 18 |
| for. So they are being up-sold on the interest |
23 | 18 |
| rate, often by a couple of points. |
24 | 18 |
| We're seeing adjustable rate |
1 | 19 |
| mortgages that start in this climate with the |
2 | 19 |
| teaser rate of anywhere between 10 to 12 percent |
3 | 19 |
| interest rate. That's a teaser rate. They |
4 | 19 |
| typically, once they are fully indexed, will go up |
5 | 19 |
| to something like 14 percent. |
6 | 19 |
| There is very paltry and inadequate |
7 | 19 |
| disclosure. Most of the people I see that are |
8 | 19 |
| buying these don't understand they have an |
9 | 19 |
| adjustable rate mortgage. They don't understand |
10 | 19 |
| how much it's going to go up, they don't understand |
11 | 19 |
| what the index is, and they have no idea what the |
12 | 19 |
| maximum payment is going to be. |
13 | 19 |
| We have cases in our office where the |
14 | 19 |
| maximum payment could easily be more than the |
15 | 19 |
| current income of the family. And in many cases, |
16 | 19 |
| the fully indexed rate would be 60 or 70 percent of |
17 | 19 |
| the family's current income. |
18 | 19 |
| There is one case recently of a |
19 | 19 |
| client in our office who ended up in one of these |
20 | 19 |
| homes. She had been in public housing. She was |
21 | 19 |
| working and she wanted to buy a home because she |
22 | 19 |
| wanted to put her family on a better footing. |
23 | 19 |
| The center gets the call. They get |
24 | 19 |
| them out of the neighborhood that public housing |
1 | 20 |
| was in, to build pride in homeownership. She ended |
2 | 20 |
| up in a house that had many problems, one of her |
3 | 20 |
| children ended up with lead poisoning. And the |
4 | 20 |
| mortgage itself was very, very destructive. In a |
5 | 20 |
| recent deposition she testified that she wished |
6 | 20 |
| she'd never moved out of public housing. That her |
7 | 20 |
| life had been better when she was in public housing |
8 | 20 |
| than it was as a homeowner. |
9 | 20 |
| I have clients that sit in my office |
10 | 20 |
| every day and tell me that they now tell all of |
11 | 20 |
| their friends that they should never become |
12 | 20 |
| homeowners. That being a homeowner is a trap, it |
13 | 20 |
| is a downward spiral. |
14 | 20 |
| There is something seriously wrong |
15 | 20 |
| with our system when I see every year close to 100 |
16 | 20 |
| families come through my door who determine that |
17 | 20 |
| homeownership is a trap. And that homeownership |
18 | 20 |
| for them, instead of decreasing the wealth gap |
19 | 20 |
| between whites and blacks, has only served to |
20 | 20 |
| increase it. |
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| I think there are two reasons we have |
22 | 20 |
| seen this explosion of devastation. The first |
23 | 20 |
| Governor Olson has already alluded to, which is we |
24 | 20 |
| have lost meaningful underwriting in many |
1 | 21 |
| circumstances. Many of the loans I see would never |
2 | 21 |
| have been made if there were thorough and |
3 | 21 |
| responsible underwriting. The ARMS that I see, if |
4 | 21 |
| you read in the pooling service agreement, it says |
5 | 21 |
| in the pooling servicing agreement that they |
6 | 21 |
| weren't underwritten for even the fully indexed |
7 | 21 |
| rate, let alone the maximum rate. There is no |
8 | 21 |
| attempt to determine whether or not these loans |
9 | 21 |
| when they index upwards in two years are going to |
10 | 21 |
| be able to be paid. |
11 | 21 |
| There is no residual income test. |
12 | 21 |
| And if you're making loans to people who are low |
13 | 21 |
| income, a family of four who is earning $1200 a |
14 | 21 |
| month, you can't assume that 50 percent of that |
15 | 21 |
| income is going to be available for principal and |
16 | 21 |
| interest without seeing how much more they are |
17 | 21 |
| going to have to pay for utility costs, for taxes, |
18 | 21 |
| for insurance, and then allowing something so that |
19 | 21 |
| they can eat and put clothes on their children's |
20 | 21 |
| backs. |
21 | 21 |
| I think that one of the reasons that |
22 | 21 |
| we have see this dearth of underwriting is the lack |
23 | 21 |
| of assigning liability, and the difficulty of |
24 | 21 |
| assigning liability in those situations where it |
1 | 22 |
| is. The only place where we see meaningful |
2 | 22 |
| assignment of liability is in HOEPA loans. Even |
3 | 22 |
| that in Illinois has had to be hard fought over and |
4 | 22 |
| over again. |
5 | 22 |
| What that means is that Wall Street |
6 | 22 |
| has been, I think, very good at pooling these loans |
7 | 22 |
| and pricing the risks so that investors in the |
8 | 22 |
| aggregate are not losing money on these loans. But |
9 | 22 |
| homeowners are not given the same kind of |
10 | 22 |
| disclosures that Wall Street investors are. |
11 | 22 |
| One very obvious example is the |
12 | 22 |
| pooling servicing agreement that I mentioned. They |
13 | 22 |
| talk about how they haven't done the underwriting |
14 | 22 |
| for the fully indexed rate. The homeowners all |
15 | 22 |
| believe that that has been done, and it's not. |
16 | 22 |
| GOVERNOR OLSON: Thank you very much, Diane. |
17 | 22 |
| Thomas James. |
18 | 22 |
| MR. JAMES: Good morning, and thanks -- |
19 | 22 |
| GOVERNOR OLSON: Could you pull the microphone |
20 | 22 |
| over. |
21 | 22 |
| MR. JAMES: Sure. Good morning and thanks for |
22 | 22 |
| inviting me. Diane is always a very hard act to |
23 | 22 |
| follow, and I will keep my comments short as she |
24 | 22 |
| said everything I wanted to say. |
1 | 23 |
| I think one of the things that -- |
2 | 23 |
| GOVERNOR OLSON: Could you identify the group |
3 | 23 |
| that you represent? |
4 | 23 |
| MR. JAMES: Sure. I'm with the Illinois |
5 | 23 |
| Attorney General's Office. So we are the police |
6 | 23 |
| and regulatory of the state apparatus. |
7 | 23 |
| I was one of the chief authors of our |
8 | 23 |
| High Risk Home Loan Act, a mini-HOEPA that we have |
9 | 23 |
| in effect here in Illinois that really shadows |
10 | 23 |
| HOEPA in a lot of ways. Except that we tweaked it |
11 | 23 |
| to lower the triggers to 5 percent on these |
12 | 23 |
| points. And where we saw most of the -- where we |
13 | 23 |
| see or we did see historically most of these used. |
14 | 23 |
| And I want to say that HOEPA and I |
15 | 23 |
| think our Act have been entirely effective in |
16 | 23 |
| shutting down that abuse. So that I think less |
17 | 23 |
| than 1 percent of loans that are written today are |
18 | 23 |
| HOEPA or high home -- High Home Loan Risk Act |
19 | 23 |
| susceptible. |
20 | 23 |
| So I encourage you to look at HOEPA |
21 | 23 |
| and to tweak it more. I think the triggers can |
22 | 23 |
| come down to the levels that we have in Illinois |
23 | 23 |
| easily to shut down the front end abuse that we see |
24 | 23 |
| in fees and points. |
1 | 24 |
| And I want to say that one of the |
2 | 24 |
| side effects has been that the abuses have been |
3 | 24 |
| pushed into other areas. Particularly structural |
4 | 24 |
| areas, in the way loans are structured. Foremost |
5 | 24 |
| among those are prepayment penalties, teaser rates |
6 | 24 |
| that end before the prepayment penalties end. |
7 | 24 |
| Margins that are never disclosed to consumers, |
8 | 24 |
| margins over the index rate. And then, of course, |
9 | 24 |
| the ARM. |
10 | 24 |
| And the ARM is really the source of a |
11 | 24 |
| tremendous amount of abuse in the marketplace. |
12 | 24 |
| People simply don't understand how the mechanism |
13 | 24 |
| works. And they don't understand how the indexes |
14 | 24 |
| fluctuate, they don't understand that they are |
15 | 24 |
| written into loans with an initial rate below which |
16 | 24 |
| their loan will never descend. |
17 | 24 |
| So I encourage the Board, the Fed, to |
18 | 24 |
| look at the structural abuses that are -- that |
19 | 24 |
| consumers have no chance. |
20 | 24 |
| Yesterday I was in a training session |
21 | 24 |
| with 11 experienced lawyers and I handed out the |
22 | 24 |
| current disclosures that are given with ARMS. And |
23 | 24 |
| I gave everybody three minutes to read those |
24 | 24 |
| disclosures. Then I gave them five minutes to read |
1 | 25 |
| those disclosures. And then at ten minutes, I |
2 | 25 |
| called time. And there wasn't an individual in |
3 | 25 |
| that room who could explain to me the nature of a |
4 | 25 |
| transaction that they would engage in as lawyers |
5 | 25 |
| were they to go through with that loan. |
6 | 25 |
| So in the disclosure areas we work in |
7 | 25 |
| an atmosphere of basically total failure. We don't |
8 | 25 |
| know how to communicate the nature of the products |
9 | 25 |
| to the consumers. |
10 | 25 |
| And if you go, if you flip in the |
11 | 25 |
| commentary to the disclosures, the ARM disclosures, |
12 | 25 |
| they're completely laughable. First of all, we are |
13 | 25 |
| in an age of technology where we can and we have |
14 | 25 |
| forced Ameriquest to give the real deal when the |
15 | 25 |
| deal goes down. They have to give the real figures |
16 | 25 |
| at the point where the consumer is making the |
17 | 25 |
| choice to buy. And that comes before the closing, |
18 | 25 |
| it comes at the sale of the loan. And the sale |
19 | 25 |
| comes with the push marketing, and that comes with |
20 | 25 |
| the first contact. Particularly in under-served |
21 | 25 |
| communities where banks don't exist historically. |
22 | 25 |
| So at that initial contact when the |
23 | 25 |
| offer is made, the real figures have to be given. |
24 | 25 |