In a letter to federal regulators sent this week, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) stated words of caution over mortgage industry rules and regulations that have the potential to continue crowding out the private market.
Corker, who is a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, pointed specifically to work being done on the “Qualified Residential Mortgage” rule and urged that the rule should align with the Qualified Mortgage, or “QM” rule announced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this month.
“Forcing lenders to comply with two separate sets of rules isn’t good policy, and in this case, it would set back the timetable on doing what we absolutely must do—begin to move away from a complete dependence on the government for mortgage crebravdit in our country,” Corker wrote.
The QRM and QM rules, if not aligned, could have a serious detrimental impact on the mortgage market, the senator stressed.
“I am writing to you today regarding the Risk-Retention and Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) standards being developed pursuant to Section 941 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Regardless of how one may feel about Congress telling federal agencies to draft both “qualified mortgage” underwriting standards and rules around so-called “risk retention,” the reality is that the joint federal regulators now responsible for the QRM rules are in a position to materially impact what the system of housing finance in the United States will look like for years to come.”
The regulators currently tasked with developing the QRM include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve and Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
