Blaine Luetkemeyer: “I thank the chairman for his hard work on our committee and leadership as well. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking…”

“I thank the chairman for his hard work on our committee and leadership as well. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Emmer) for sponsoring this very important legislation. Banks and credit unions of all sizes are drowning in a sea of paperwork. We hear about it every day from lenders that appear before the Financial Services Committee. The reality is that, because of the regulatory environment, mortgage lending is simply too burdensome for some community banks and credit unions. Lenders have little choice but to limit the products and services made available to customers or, in some cases, exit the mortgage business all together, which some have actually done. The changes we have seen on the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements are a great example of regulation run amuck. On every loan, lenders must check a lengthy series of boxes. One mistake lands a bank or credit union out of compliance, in hot water with the field examiners, and potentially exposed to litigation. In committee, I had a matrix. It is almost 300 boxes of things that they have to look at. Then if there is one box that is out of compliance, you could be exposed. The Obama administration CFPB significantly expanded regulatory requirements associated with HMDA. Financial institutions now have to report a total of 48 different data fields for each individual borrower.…”