MBA Calls for Policy Coordinator to Oversee Regulation

At the 99th annual ""Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)"":http://www.mbaa.org/default.htm conference, President David H. Stevens called on active involvement from the association's members as MBA ramps up its presence in Washington, hoping to affect change in the way the housing industry regulation is currently viewed and approached.

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Thus far this year, MBA has testified six times before Congress and has met with federal agencies, including Treasury, HUD, OCC, FDIC, the Fed, the CFPB, the SEC, FHFA, and FASB 21 times.

Despite these efforts, Stevens stated, ""the fog of misunderstanding about our business and our motives has not fully lifted.""

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""We don't need to be sent off in the corner to be punished while others fix the housing market,"" he stated. ""We need to be part of the solution.""

Stevens is calling on the administration to put in place a housing policy coordinator, ""a traffic cop for all new rules."" The coordinator would be responsible for making sure regulators are working together and new regulations from various agencies do not conflict one another.

Secondly, Stevens hopes to change the GSEs' rulemaking process to allow for comment from the industry prior to implication.

""We must demand the opportunity to have input on any rules the GSEs are considering â€" before they are set in stone,"" Stevens stated. ""This is only reasonable â€" and MBA is going to fight for it.""

Stevens expressed his concern that Congress and nine different regulators are working on rules for the housing market, ""[a]nd they aren't working together.""

Instead of fixing the problems, Washington has become part of the problem, according to Stevens, and the solution involves both industry input and cooperation amongst regulators.