The Mortgage Bankers Association made plenty of news at its annual conference Oct. 19-22 in Las Vegas. Dodd Frank Update was on hand as MBA elected new members to its board of directors and honored a host of individuals and companies within the industry.
Union Home Mortgage Corp. CEO Bill Cosgrove was sworn in as MBA chairman for 2015, with Quicken Loans Inc. CEO Bill Emerson named chairman-elect and AmeriSphere President and CEO Rodrigo Lopez named vice chairman.
Five new members were named to the MBA Board of Directors: Byron Boston of Dynex Capital Inc., Nathan Burch of McLean Mortgage Corp., Philip DeFronzo of Norcom Mortgage, Thomas S. Dennard of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital LLC and Richard Bennion of HomeStreet Bank.
“My business – just like many of yours – has spent much of the past several years implementing the many Dodd-Frank rules,” Cosgrove said in prepared remarks to open the conference. “Sure, it’s important for us to roll up our sleeves, get to work, and comply with federal regulations. But that is not enough. We can and must do more.”
Cosgrove said that regulatory burden on the industry needs to be addressed.
“As an industry, we’ve proven we need to be regulated,” he said. “However, the regulatory avalanche of today’s Washington isn’t working, and we are seeing the results in today’s marketplace. We all need to come back to center, policymakers, regulators, consumer groups and our industry to achieve a healthy balance that the American economy desperately needs.
“As chairman of MBA, I intend to make this point very clear. The next year will be about access to credit and the collective impact of the new rules and enforcement regimes on consumers. Access to credit for qualified borrowers, especially first-time homebuyers, is imperative to market growth and stability. And it’s the main thing that is affecting today’s housing market.”
Cosgrove also called on cooperation between regulatory agencies as well as cooperation with the industry.
“Regulators must be our partners to solve the overlapping regulations that are holding back the mortgage and housing markets,” he said. “If they’re going to regulate us, they must work to better understand the unintended consequences on consumers. We still need clarification and transparency in many areas to better understand our risk factors. This is an issue not just in the residential market, but also the commercial/multifamily markets. We must work with regulators, show them the issues, and resolve these issues together.”
In other news at the MBA annual conference:
- MBA awarded Debra Still with its Andrew D. Woodward Distinguished Service Award. The award is presented in recognition of dedication and prominent service to MBA and the mortgage lending industry in a variety of capacities involving both legislative and regulatory activities.
- E.J. Burke, the former chairman of MBA, and his wife, Martha, have been awarded the “MBA Opens Doors Foundation Community Champion Award.” The award recognizes those who have dedicated significant time and effort to advance the foundation’s mission to enable families with a critically ill or injured child to keep their home, even in the face of significant medical bills.
- David Motley, president of Colonial National Mortgage, was presented the 2014 Schumacher-Bolduc Award in recognition of his outstanding work on behalf of the committee and the mortgage lending industry.
MBA inducted 17 companies into the Hall of Honor program. The Hall of Honor recognizes both corporations and individual corporate leaders for their commitment to veterans and active-duty military personnel. The Hall of Honor program was created to acknowledge MBA member companies with programs that serve veterans in three categories — financial counseling, employment opportunities and homeownership assistance. Companies honored for financial counseling were: Bank of America, NewDay USA, PNC Mortgage, SunTrust Mortgage, USA Mortgage and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Those inducted for employment opportunities were: Bank of America, PenFed, Quicken Loans, USAA Federal Savings Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Those inducted for homeownership assistance were: Bank of America, Cornerstone Home Lending Inc., Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, Freedom Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase, PenFed, PrimeLending, Pulte Mortgage, SunTrust Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Wintrust Mortgage.