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On Wednesday, June 20, 2012, NAR 2012 President Moe Veissi testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity on the forthcoming Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rulemaking on RESPA/TILA harmonization.
Veissi urged the CFPB to focus on the initial disclosures, the Good Faith Estimate and the Truth in Lending disclosure and to avoid wholesale changes to the settlement process. Veissi described the potential for disruption as well as increased cost to consumers of making major changes in an attempt to fundamentally change the settlement statement or HUD-1, to include Truth in Lending rules and disclosures.
Veissi noted the 2010 HUD changes to RESPA cost both the industry and consumers significant sums and did nothing to reduce settlement costs. In fact, according to one study, they have increased by 17% since then. The CFPB is expected to release a proposed rule on or before July 21, 2012.