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The California Association of Mortgage Brokers (CAMB) is at the forefront of helping millions of Californians achieve the dream of home ownership. CAMB is pursuing a legislative agenda at the federal and state levels of government ensuring consumers will continue to have a variety of loan options to fit their individual financial goals.
At the federal level these priorities remain:
- Increase FHA and conforming loan limits;
- Allow mortgage brokers to offer FHA products after securing a surety bond; and
- Ensure all mortgage originators are required to adhere to the same licensing and disclosure requirements
- Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending
In order to help homeowners in California avoid foreclosure and access safe and affordable mortgage products, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) programs must be available here. As Congress works to reform FHA programs and improve GSE housing, CAMB continues to support provisions that increase the maximum loan amounts for FHA and GSE mortgage products in high cost housing markets.
Cost-prohibitive and time consuming audit and net worth requirements have left many mortgage brokers unable to originate FHA loans. This leaves subprime loan products as the only option offered to some borrowers. CAMB supports the ability of mortgage brokers to purchase a surety bond to participate in the FHA program so that more consumers are provided with the option of an FHA mortgage product. A surety bond will actually provide the FHA program with more financial protection from loss than audits or net worth requirements, which are snapshots in financial time holding no real value in the event of actual FHA losses.
CAMB supports new legislative provisions to combat predatory lending, such as licensing requirements and compensation disclosures that would apply equally to all mortgage originators helping consumers make better-informed decisions about the loan products available to them.
CAMB has been actively lobbying the House Financial Services Committee since the introduction of HR 3915. Although CAMB supports legislative provisions designed to combat predatory lending such as licensing requirements and compensation disclosures that would apply equally to all mortgage originators, CAMB is also working hard to preserve Yield Spread Premium in all cases other than those where an originator is deliberately steering a borrower to a particular product in order to receive compensation.
During 2007, CAMB strongly supported the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007, and the Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2007. Both measures have advanced through the U.S. House of Representatives, and CAMB will continue to support these legislative measures as they are debated in the U.S. Senate.
At the state level these priorities remain:
- Financial literacy education opportunities;
- Consumer credit protection and privacy issues; and
- Integrity of the mortgage lending process.
CAMB supported AB 150 (Lieu) which would have established the California Literacy Initiative for improving financial literacy by offering materials for teachers and schools to provide high-quality financial literacy for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 through 12, inclusive.
CAMB sponsored SB 954 (Ridley-Thomas), which aimed to protect California’s consumers engaged in mortgage loan transactions from identity theft and abusive lending practices. CAMB believes that the unauthorized sale of a consumer’s personal information poses a significant risk to consumers in California.
CAMB Brokers supports SB 223 ( Machado), which will maintain the integrity of the appraisal process while encouraging dialogue between all interested parties enabling a positive and informative home-buying experience while at the same time serving as an important tool in the prevention of abusive lending practices.
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