Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, issued the following statement today:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 16, 2014 – (RealEstateRama) — Any mortgage finance reform needs to prioritize access to credit and affordability for all creditworthy borrowers – and that’s not what we see in the bill that passed the Senate Banking Committee today.
The proposal to overhaul the nation’s housing finance system needlessly makes mortgages more expensive and less available placing homeownership out of reach for far too many American families. Without meaningful requirements to serve all markets nationally or follow fair lending obligations, the proposal undermines efforts to ensure equal access to mortgage credit for communities of color or modest incomes. At the same time, the bill allows the largest banks – many that were at the center of the recent crisis – to dominate the market while putting smaller banks and credit unions at a competitive disadvantage.
We appreciate the efforts of the Senate Banking Committee, but fundamental changes are needed to ensure a healthy and robust housing finance system that meets the needs of all American families and the American economy.
We applaud the efforts of all who worked hard to fix the bill’s shortcomings and look forward to working with members of Congress to address problems with the current financing system that fueled the recent crisis without undermining or eliminating those aspects that provided affordable thirty year fixed rate mortgages to tens of millions of American households.
For more information, contact Catherine An at 
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About the Center for Responsible Lending
The Center for Responsible Lending is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices. CRL is affiliated with Self-Help, one of the nation’s largest community development financial institutions.
