One year after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, speaks out with criticism for Republicans and industry participants who oppose the law or wish to change it.
[IMAGE]Frank's criticisms for Republicans include disapproval of their attempts to alter the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and their attempts to block Elizabeth Warren's nomination to head the bureau.
He also criticizes them for favoring a disbanding of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
[COLUMN_BREAK]Maintaining that risk retention is the most important part of the bill, Frank also censured industry members who oppose the proposed qualified residential mortgage (QRM) definition.
MBA president and CEO David Stevens responded to Frank's comments, maintaining that the MBA does support risk retention but adding that the organization does not support the risk retention rule set forth in the Dodd-Frank Act.
""MBA, as we have said many times, supports risk retention and believes it is an important step in establishing a regulatory plan to protect borrowers and ensure a safe and sustainable mortgage system,"" Stevens commented.
""In order for risk retention to work, to create a functioning mortgage system that protects and serves borrowers, regulators must get the QRM right, and we do not believe that the rule, as proposed, gets it right,"" he continued.
Stevens insisted that the proposed QRM would ""needlessly limit homeownership opportunities for well-qualified borrowers, while at the same time offering little corresponding benefit preventing defaults.""
""We will continue to advocate for a better QRM rule because we believe that the price of enacting the rule as proposed would far exceed any benefit that risk retention would provide,"" Stevens concluded.