House Committee to Examine Fed’s Loan Officer Compensation Rules

In the House Financial Services Committee's ""oversight plan"":http://www.namb.org/images/02-01-11-FSC-Oversight-Plan-final.pdf released this week, the committee said it will examine the implementation of ""new rules"":http://dsnews.comarticles/federal-reserves-loan-officer-compensation-guidance-2011-01-28 issued by the ""Federal Reserve"":http://www.federalreserve.gov governing mortgage originator compensation, which are scheduled to become effective April 1, 2011.

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The committee's statement read: ""The Committee is concerned that the rules may have an adverse impact on the ability of small businesses that originate mortgages to remain in business.""

The committee added: ""The Committee will also review the interaction of existing real estate settlement rules with rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.""

The ""National Association of Independent Housing Professionals"":http://www.naihp.com/ (NAIHP) has ""threatened to sue"":http://dsnews.comarticles/trade-group-threatens-to-sue-fed-over-loan-officer-rules-2011-02-08 the Federal Reserve over the new loan officer pay rules.

The trade group says the regulation ""picks winners and losers in that it eliminates competition, which increases costs for consumers and creates more business failures for small business.""

The Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration (SBA) has sent two letters to the Federal Reserve board asking for more guidance for small business compliance regarding loan officer compensation.