OntheWilderSide

The Fed has issued a wide-ranging proposal on reverse mortgages—a loan product that represents a growing market for lenders, but which can pose major risks for elderly homeowners. In comments submitted to the Board, the groups detail how the Board’s proposal would permit several negative outcomes:

• Bundling harmful and unnecessary products with reverse mortgages.  When seniors get a reverse mortgage, the lender would be allowed to also sell them harmful or unnecessary financial products after a 10-day waiting period.
• False advertising. Would allow advertisers to make false statements, such as “you can never lose your home,” as long as they present additional information.
• Gouging homeowners unfairly.  Would open the door for a harmful new type of reverse mortgage where borrowers could owe much more than the home is worth.  As it stands now, borrowers cannot owe more than the home is worth if they pay off the reverse mortgage by selling the home.
• Undermining the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Clashes with specific requirements in the financial reform bill passed last summer, which calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to study reverse mortgages and issue regulations based on its findings.

Another major issue involves the “right of rescission,” which provides homeowners up to three years to refinance or restructure a mortgage if a lender made the loan without providing timely and accurate disclosures about the loan’s terms and conditions. Under the new proposal, the definition of “accurate” disclosures would be relaxed, allowing, for example, a lender to tell a homeowner that the monthly payment was $100 less than it actually was. The groups urge the Fed to preserve this right of rescission, which has been a major tool in combating predatory lending.

via Federal Reserve Should Withdraw Proposals that Enable Loan Scams on Senior Citizens.

Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, economy, News, politics, US Politics Tagged: | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Federal Reserve System, Financial Services, Home insurance, Loan, Mortgage loan, Reverse mortgage