The League of Iowa Human & Civil Rights Agencies

Loan Modification Program Starts to Get Some Traction

By David Streitfeld

Published: March 12, 2010, New York Times

After a dismal start, the Obama administration’s antiforeclosure efforts are finally gaining some traction. But the results are still paltry when set against the vast sea of homeowners in trouble.

The Treasur...

A Consumer Bill Gives Exemption on Payday Loans

By Sewell Chan, New York Times

Published: March 9, 2010

WASHINGTON — Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is playing a crucial role in bipartisan negotiations over financial regulation, pressed to remove a provision from draft legislation that would have empowered fe...

The Obama administration, under intense pressure to help millions of people in danger of losing their homes, is considering a ban on foreclosures unless they have first been examined for potential modification, according to a set of draft proposals. That would raise the stakes from the current practice, which strongly encourages lenders to evaluate defaulting borrowers for a modification but does not make it mandatory.

The New York Times has run a couple of articles in recent weeks about whether it makes sense to walk away from a mortgage that is bigger than the house is now worth. In a recent paper cited in an article on Sunday, “Underwater, but Will They Leave the Pool?” a University of Arizona law professor, Brent White, explained how the vast majority of underwater homeowners continue to make mortgage payments even if it might make more financial sense for them to strategically default and w...

Responding to the severe housing and credit crisis in the United States, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez recently announced the creation of a fair lending unit within the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Perez, who leads the division, identified "lending discrimination" as particularly destructive, stating that "it's discrimination with a smile, and it tears communities apart."  Perez cited 38 pending investigations concerning fair lending practices, and said the ...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending, opening a new front in the Obama administration’s response to the foreclosure crisis. Tom Perez, the assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Rights Division, is expected to announce Thursday in New York that the administration is creating a new unit that will focus exclusively on unfair lending ...

If you, your relatives or your friends are contemplating applying for a reverse mortgage in 2010, check out the new guidelines proposed in December by federal regulators. Though aimed at banks and credit unions, the guidelines neatly sum up the potential pitfalls for consumers in the fast-growing reverse-mortgage field. Reverse mortgages typically are restricted to homeowners 62 and older who have untapped equity in their real estate and want to turn it into cash.

SEATTLE -- After a new law imposing stricter regulations on the payday lending industry takes effect Jan. 1, Ken Weaver is not optimistic his two check-cashing stores in eastern Washington will remain open. The new law limits the size of a payday loan to 30 percent of a person's monthly income, or $700, whichever is less. It also bars people from having multiple loans from different lenders, limits the number of loans a person can take out to eight per 12 months, and sets up a database to tra...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Hammered by a housing downturn that contributed to the state's budget crisis, California is boosting protections for home buyers and punishing brokers who mislead borrowers and steer them into costly loans. Statutes requiring individual loan officers to register with the state, making it a crime to give inaccurate information during the mortgage-application process and ensuring that banks inform potential borrowers of all their loan products are among hundreds of Califor...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced publication of a proposed rule setting the minimum standards that states must meet to comply with the Secure and Fair Enforcement Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) in licensing loan originators. The proposed rule is posted in today’s Federal Register and on HUD’s website. “By introducing nationwide standards of uniform licensing for loan originators, the SAFE Act is taking an impo...