WASHINGTON, DC - Today the House passed, and Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06) supported, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155) which includes Congressman Emmer's Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act (HMDAA) and the Keeping Capital Local for Underserved Communities Act. The legislation now heads to the President's desk to be signed into law.
“Today Congress took a major step forward for this country, its economy and for all Americans. This legislation will foster economic growth by providing relief to Main Street, tailor regulations for better efficacy, and most importantly it will empower individual Americans and give them more opportunity,”said Congressman Emmer, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
“I am excited to see the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act head to the President's desk. When I first introduced this legislation in 2015, I had the people of Minnesota in mind: the recent college graduate applying for his first car loan to get to and from his new job; the young couple looking for the credit they needed to purchase their first home; the entrepreneur applying for a loan to start her own business. I look forward to this legislation being swiftly signed into law to provide Minnesotans and Americans across the country more opportunity to finance their American Dream.”
Emmer introduced the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act when he first came to Congress in 2015, the same year the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) doubled the number of data points required to be collected by large and small lenders. While larger financial institutions have been able to absorb the millions of dollars in compliance costs, the smaller lenders on Main Street have stopped offering mortgages altogether, leaving many Americans without options in their hometown for any loan. Emmer's HMDAA will exempt these small lenders from the CFPB's additional, costly regulations, and provide more Americans opportunities to access the credit they need to buy a home, a car, or start or expand a business.
Specifically, HMDAA will exempt institutions from the CFPB's reporting and disclosure requirements institutions that have originated in each of the two preceding calendar years:
• fewer than 500 closed-end mortgage loans, and
• fewer than 500 open-end lines of credit.
In addition to HMDAA, legislation Congressman Emmer co-authored with Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI), the Keeping Capital Local for Underserved Communities Act of 2017, was also included in S. 2155. This bill updates an archaic definition of “deposit broker” in Section 29 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act that is currently discouraging community banks from taking on stable “reciprocal deposits,” which are used by many community banks, minority-owned banks, and community-development banks, thereby limiting loans and banking products in these communities. To address this problem, the Moore/Emmer bill allows a limited exemption for community banks for reciprocal deposits opening more access to capital in our local communities.
CLICK HERE to read the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act.
CLICK HERE to read Emmer's Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act.
CLICK HERE to read Emmer's Keeping Capital Local for Underserved Communities Act of 2017.
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