Healthcare reform has drawn most of the attention on Capitol Hill lately, but for home buyers, sellers and mortgage applicants, the legislative ballgame will really get underway in September, when Congress begins serious work on the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
Legislation creating the agency is pending in the House, pushed by Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is its principal author. The Obama administration had outlined a similar plan at the end of June and considers passage of a bill a priority.
To begin with, be aware that the agency’s powers and oversight would extend far beyond mortgages and real estate — into all credit cards, debit cards, consumer loans, payday loans, credit reporting agencies, debt collection, stored-value cards and even investment advisory and financial advisory services, to name only part of the list.
It would have the authority to alter long-common practices that nettle consumers, such as mandatory arbitration clauses in the fine print of contracts that automatically send business-consumer disputes to arbitrators rather than to courts. The agency could ban or limit such clauses in specific products if they are shown to tilt against consumers’ interests.
The agency would be the dominant federal …
Read the original article at Latimes
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Tags: Business, buy, Car, Cards, consumer, Credit Cards, debt, financial, house, legal, loans, mortgage, pay, Real Estate
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