NAMB Warns Against Rush to Regulate

Congress should examine the causes of foreclosures before rushing to judgment and prescribing new restrictions on lenders that could "unfairly curtail access to credit," according to the president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.The NAMB has been pushing for the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on foreclosures, and the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is expected to submit a request to the GAO. "No one questions the personal heartbreak of foreclosure or the serious effect this is having on America's cities," NAMB president Harry Dinham told a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on March 21. However, there are a number of possible factors -- bankruptcy reform, credit card debt, low savings rates, and decreasing home values, as well as illness and other life events -- that could explain recent increases in foreclosures, he said.