The American Bankers Association, in a new letter, is urging the Federal Reserve Board to delay the effective date of its loan officer compensation rule for at least 90 days.
The trade group claims written guidance is needed before the rule becomes "applicable to every mortgage transaction in the marketplace." The rule goes into effect April 1, Friday.
The verbal advice Fed attorneys provided during a March 17 webcast did not "offer workable clarifications as hoped," ABA says in a letter delivered to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.
The advice raised more compliance questions and "exacerbated banks concerns over regulatory risks in other areas," ABA president and chief executive Frank Keating says in the March 29 letter.
"ABA is not suggesting that the Board end this rulemaking," Keating notes. "Instead, we are requesting that the Board postpone the implementation date for 90 days to better assess the interpretive expansions that were just announced verbally in the webcast, and that the Board offer written and formal guidance that allow banks to properly comply."
