MICHIGAN COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT CORPORATION
April 13, 2004
RE: Comment regarding the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1996.
As a board member
of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, MICHIGAN COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT
CORPORATION is sending this comment
in response to the notice of Regulatory Review as required by the
Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) of
1996. In response to the second series, “consumer Protection:
Lending-Related Rules” we respectively request that the federal
banking agencies retain their regulations concerning Fair Housing,
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), Home Mortgage Disclosure Act
(HMDA), Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Unfair or Deceptive Acts
or Practices.
MICHIGAN COMMUNITY
REINVESTMENT CORPORATION favors expanding data reporting requirements
that will
assist in achieving the goals of
these fair lending statues and substantially benefit consumers with
little regulatory burden. Under EGRPRA, the federal agencies must
identify “outdated” regulations. The incomplete data
collection under HMDA and ECOA is outdated and frustrates the purpose
of this statute to prevent discrimination. While increasing data
reporting requirements, the federal agencies must not limit the consumer
protections currently available under these regulations. Any streamlining
of these protections would interfere with the agencies ability to
fulfill their statutory obligations.
A series of federal statutes including the Fair Housing Act, the
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and
the Truth-in-Lending Act have established a solemn congressional
intent and purpose of eliminating abusive and discriminatory lending.
In light of the recent decision by the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency to preempt all state anti-predatory lending legislation,
these protections have become even more important to consumers. The
MICHIGAN COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CORPORATION does not believe these
statutes provide enough protection; therefore any regulatory streamlining
would further put consumers at risk.
Page 2 EGRPRA
IN CONCLUSION
Finally, in 2001,
the Federal Reserve Board made valuable improvements to their regulation
implementing the Home Ownership and Equity Protection
Act (HOEPA), which amended TILA. Among other benefits, the changes
applied HOEPA’s protections to more subprime loans, including
most loans with single premium credit insurance. Since abusive lending
continues to increase, the federal agencies must preserve the changes
to HOEPA. The regulatory agencies must also preserve the critical
right of rescission under TILA. This right empowers borrowers at
the closing table, enabling them to bargain with lenders and eliminate
onerous terms and conditions in their loans. The right of rescission
provides vital protection in the event that a borrower desires to
cancel an abusive loan up to three days after closing.
Likewise, the agencies must not weaken HMDA, ECOA, TILA or protections
in regulations implementing the Fair Housing and Unfair Deceptive
Practices Acts. Data disclosure under these laws must become more
comprehensive in order to identify and uproot discrimination.
Sincerely,
Veronica L. Williams
President
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