The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, brainchild of now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.), has created the Ability to Repay rule, a set of guidelines for lenders that are designed to protect consumers from predatory lending. The practice of lenders offering mortgages to unqualified homebuyers and then selling the debt to third parties like banks caused the 2008 economic collapse after too many consumers couldn't keep up on their payments.Boiled down, the new rules force lenders to take responsibility for the loans they write. It will no longer be possible for lenders to say a customer bears all the responsibility for what they sign. This could curtail overly pushy salesmanship and other lending practices that enabled mortgage lenders to write risky loans before getting them off their books. After the economy cratered there were numerous reports of lenders offering "liar loans" that required minimal or no documentation from customers or deceptively low teaser rates that exploded soon after the loans were signed.According to the agency the Ability to Repay rule requires that:Continue Reading... … Read More
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