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Recent Posts Tagged With 'legislation'
Financial Services Bill Provides Grants to Protect Seniors from Fraudulent Marketing
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 that passed the House earlier this month, contains a provision that calls on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide grants for states to investigate and prosecute misleading ...
Senator Introduces Senior Investor Protection Act
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced a comprehensive plan to arm seniors with the resources they need to protect themselves from consumer fraud. According to estimates from to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), one out of five seniors fall vict...
New California Disclosure Requirements Cause Confusion for Lenders
During a special workshop on the reverse mortgage landscape in California at the NRMLA annual meeting, it become clear after only a few minutes that there is immense confusion among lenders surrounding AB329, California’s Reverse Mortgage Elder Pro...
House Votes To Extend Estate Tax
The US House of Representatives voted earlier this month to permanently extend the estate tax by a vote of 225-200. Only Democrats voted for the bill, with 26 Democrats joining Republicans in voting against it. The House plan would exten...
Reverse Mortgage Amendment Passes the House with Overwhelming Support
Financial Services Bill H.R. 4173 passed in the House of Representatives this afternoon by a vote of 223-202. Included with it was the Reverse Mortgage Amendment proposed by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV...
Reverse Mortgage Amendment Proposed to Consumer Financial Protection Agency Bill
Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) co-sponsored an amendment to H.R. 4173, the Financial Services Bill being debated in the House of Representatives today. Amendment #209 would require the new Consumer F...
Are States Now Listening to Reverse Mortgage Advocates?
Continued legislative activism around reverse mortgages at the state level featured a new law passed last month in California that requires reverse mortgage lenders to provide “additional, clear information to senior consumers interested in reverse...
Congress Passes Extension of Higher Reverse Mortgage Loan Limits
Late last night, the House and Senate passed an extension of the $625,500 loan limit for reverse mortgages through December 31, 2010. Loan limits for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) would’ve returned to $417,000 at the end of the year ...
Reverse Mortgage Lenders Could See Final Sunset of HVCC
Last week, a House of Representatives panel passed HR 3126 by a 39 to 29 vote to establish a regulating agency for financial products marketed and sold to US consumers which included an amendment to phase out the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. ...
Problems and Questions Arise From California’s Reverse Mortgage Bill
With the enactment of any new law, the first questions that arise surround the date that the act goes into effect and the problems that the new law creates. Unlike federal legislation, there is no HUD like agency to provide guidance or direct the imp...
Schwarzenegger Signs Reverse Mortgage Elder Protection Act Into Law
Over the weekend, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 329, which establishes the Reverse Mortgage Elder Protection Act of 2009. The bill is meant to provide senior homeowners with consumer protections to ensure that they’re ...
Subprime Revisited: National Consumer Law Center Releases Report on Reverse Mortgages
The National Consumer Law Center released a report titled “Subprime Revisited: How the Rise of the Reverse Mortgage Lending Industry Puts Older Homeowners at Risk,” which according to the press release shows that abuses from the subprime mortgag...
Senator Introduces Bill to Fight Real Estate Fraud
In an effort to crack down on new mortgage scams, US Senator Charles E. Schumer announced the introduction of new legislation to protect homeowners from the recent wave of housing scams that are plaguing homeowners across the country. The Fighting R...
Massachusetts Consumer Advocate Calls for Additional Reverse Mortgage Protections
The state of Massachusetts has always taken a very aggressive approach to regulating reverse mortgage products and one of the states top consumer advocates is calling for new ways to protect people from unsolicited loans, high fees for bounced check...
MBA Releases Reverse Mortgage Model Legislation
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a copy of its model legislation for reverse mortgages earlier this month at its conference in San Diego, CA. According to the MBA, it’s meant to define a national standard of consumer protection...
California Reverse Mortgage Bill Passes Senate, Sent to Governor Schwarzenegger
Assembly Bill (AB) 329 was amended and passed in the California state Senate on September 1, 2009 and on September 3, 2009, the California state Assembly passed AB 329 as amended by the California state Senate. Late last week, the bill was enrolled ...
Model Reverse Mortgage Legislation: Are States Listening?
As industry representatives develop and circulate model legislation intended to guide state lawmakers in creating rules for reverse mortgage lending, there is some question about how much they are taking heed. “States are not paying too much attent...
California Reverse Mortgage Bill Passes Assembly, Heads to Senate
The California Assembly passed a bill earlier this week, which is meant to provide an additional level of protection to senior citizens considering reverse mortgages. Passed by a vote of 49-29, SB 660 requires that a checklist be provided to t...
Appropriations Bill Set to Change FHA Reverse Mortgage Program
As politicians head back to Washington to vote on healthcare and a range of other issues, the reverse mortgage industry waits to see what the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) will look like starting in FY 2010. The House passed its appropriatio...
Report Shows Progress Being Made to Improve Supervision of Reverse Mortgages
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) published the first report on multi-state examination efforts to improve supervision of the mortgage industry. The Multi-St...
Consumer Reports Investigative Report on Reverse Mortgages, Hardly Balanced
Consumer Reports is back and they’ve decided to jump on the Claire McCaskill bandwagon attacking reverse mortgages in their September 2009 edition. Consumer Reports calls Reversals of fortunes an “investigative” report on reverse mortgage...
Senate Appropriations Bill Includes More Reverse Mortgage Provisions
This article is a follow up on the Senate Committee on Appropriations amended version of H.R. 3288, the HUD appropriations bill for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. An article from National Mortgage News described a portion of the amendment...
New Hampshire Bill Drives Reverse Mortgage Lender Out of the State
Just a few weeks after the State of New Hampshire passed a bill banning yield spread premiums on reverse mortgages, Generation Mortgage announced to its brokers that was pulling out of the state. HB 610 is scheduled to become effective July 31st and ...
Reverse Mortgage Subsidy or Principal Limit Factor Reduction?
On a daily basis, we hear about the economic crisis and the hardships plaguing our country, from the loss of jobs, to high unemployment rates, crashing property values and companies closing up shop. It’s disconcerting to say the least. What I find ...
House Passes Bill Lowering Reverse Mortgage Benefit, Senate Up Next
The House of Representatives passed HR 3288 late last week by a vote of 255-168, which made appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, HUD, and related agencies for FY 2010. The bill includes two provisions for reverse mortgages, one which...
House Appropriations Bill Could Extend Higher Reverse Mortgage Limit
The House Appropriations Committee’s bill could lower the amount of money available to seniors using the FHA insured reverse mortgage product but the 162 page bill looks like it will extend the increased lending limit of $625,500 through FY 2010. ...
Reverse Mortgage Legislation Debate Continues Through Newspaper Editorials
The Star Tribune has been publishing back and forth commentary on the decision by Minnesota Govenor Tim Pawlenty’s decision to veto a reverse mortgage bill earlier this year which would’ve driven up the costs of the loans to consumers in the stat...
Banking Lobbyists Fight Reverse Mortgage Legislation
Banks continue to lobby for support in California, spending $4.4 million lobbying state lawmakers in the first quarter of this year, just $500,000 less than the $4.9 million they spent in the first quarter of 2007 according to the Sacramento Bee. Ban...
Senator McCaskill Fighting Reverse Mortgage Fraud Through Twitter?
Senator Claire McCaskill continued to express her concern over reverse mortgages at Senate Commerce Committee hearing earlier this week. The hearing included testimony from the Federal Trade Commission, National Consumers League and a few other...
Lobbyists Are Frantic Over California Reverse Mortgage Legislation
The California Progress Report writes that two bills designed to protect senior citizens from unscrupulous reverse mortgage lenders are being pushed by senior citizen advocates, but lobbyists representing reverse mortgages lenders are seeking to bloc...
