[Infowarrior] - OT: The US Fed finally wakes up?

[Richard Forno]

(more than a day late, and WAY more than a dollar short!!!  --rf)

Truth in Lending

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

ACTION: Proposed rule; request for public comment.

http://cryptome.org/frs010908.htm

SUMMARY: The Board proposes to amend Regulation Z, which implements the
Truth in Lending Act and Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. The
goals of the amendments are to protect consumers in the mortgage market
from unfair, abusive, or deceptive lending and servicing practices
while preserving responsible lending and sustainable homeownership;
ensure that advertisements for mortgage loans provide accurate and
balanced information and do not contain misleading or deceptive
representations; and provide consumers transaction-specific disclosures
early enough to use while shopping for a mortgage. The proposed
revisions would apply four protections to a newly-defined category of
higher-priced mortgage loans secured by a consumer's principal
dwelling, including a prohibition on a pattern or practice of lending
based on the collateral without regard to consumers' ability to repay
their obligations from income, or from other sources besides the
collateral. The proposed revisions would apply three new protections to
mortgage loans secured by a consumer's principal dwelling regardless of
loan price, including a prohibition on a creditor paying a mortgage
broker more than the consumer had agreed the broker would receive. The
Board also proposes to require that advertisements provide accurate and
balanced information, in a clear and conspicuous manner, about rates,
monthly payments, and other loan features; and to ban several deceptive
or misleading advertising practices, including representations that a
rate or payment is ``fixed'' when it can change. Finally, the proposal
would require creditors to provide consumers with transaction-specific
mortgage loan disclosures before they pay any fee except a reasonable
fee for reviewing credit history.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 8, 2008.