“Credit reports and credit scores play a critical role in the economic lives of Americans. They are the gatekeeper for affordable credit, insurance, rental housing, and sometimes unfortunately even a job. Yet they suffer from unacceptable rates of inaccuracy. This package would enact a sea change that would make the American credit reporting system more accurate and fairer to consumers.”
Credit reports and credit scores play a critical role in the economic lives of Americans. They are the gatekeeper for affordable credit, insurance, rental housing, and sometimes unfortunately even a job. Yet they suffer from unacceptable rates of inaccuracy. This package would enact a sea change that would make the American credit reporting system more accurate and fairer to consumers.
FHA mortgages play a crucial role in providing and maintaining access to affordable and sustainable homeownership for low- and moderate-income families and communities of color. If the Loan Sale Program continues in its current unregulated form, FHA borrowers and their communities remain at risk of further harm from non-compliant servicers and private equity loan purchasers. It is crucial that HUD implement strong protections both before and after loans are sold to prevent needless borrower displacement and neighborhood instability.
AFR Ed Fund and six other organizations submitted these comments in response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on the FHA Single Family Loan Sale program. View or download pdf of the letter here.
The proposed loophole-ridden rules let investors to reap tax benefits for investments outside of the Opportunity Zones, compounding the program’s tendency to invest in booming areas that drive up housing costs and displace lower-income residents of color.
AFREF and our partners sent a letter to the CFPB urging it not to weaken the current protections in the overdraft rule.
“Loosening this regulation is a straight-up giveaway to the biggest Wall Street banks whose high-risk trading activities got us all into deep trouble in 2008,” Carter Dougherty, a spokesperson for Americans for Financial Reform, told Sludge. “This rule is critical for protecting bank affiliates that handle customer deposits.”
Developing clear and appropriate standards for the servicing taxonomy will help ensure that servicers are properly held accountable for non-compliance with FHA’s requirements. It promises to improve the quality of FHA servicing, which in turn will benefit homeowners and the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) fund. HUD must ensure that its taxonomy tool encompasses these loss mitigation regulations and allows for borrower input into servicer performance in order to truly gauge whether loss mitigation is working for neighborhoods and for the MMI fund.
In a recent email to credit card holders, JPMorgan Chase notified its existing customers that they will now be subject to forced arbitration for any past and future dealings with the company. The new policy, which affects 47 million accounts, strips customers of their rights
“The money that is being siphoned off from earnings to increase executive bonuses doesn’t just make wealthy insiders wealthier,” said Heather Slavkin Corzo, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform. “It is money that could have been used to invest in making the business more competitive and pay workers living wages.”