Vicki, a mortgage friend of mine sent me a copy of an e-mail that she had received from Inside Mortgage Finance.  In the Subject line of her e-mail, she was legitimately asking me, “Do I need to get this?”  As the owner of a small mortgage company, she always wants to make sure she’s in compliance.

I’m quoting the first two paragraphs of the e-mail she passed along.  It’s from Inside Mortgage Finance, one of the “big guys” in the mortgage information business:

New Resource! Guide to the New TILA/HOEPA Mortgage Rule: The Federal Reserve Board recently finalized comprehensive new mortgage rules under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA). These sweeping changes extend to all originators and servicers, regardless of how the company is regulated. Note: your systems must be updated very soon to submit HMDA data in January 2009.

The editors at Inside Mortgage Finance have assembled a thorough analysis of this massive new rule to help you adhere to these tough new regulations.

Okay, it’s true, the feds really did publish a new Rule on 7-14-08 that makes quite a few changes to TILA and HOEPA.  But give me a break - NOTHING IS EFFECTIVE UNTIL OCTOBER OF 2009 - A FULL YEAR FROM NOW! And the servicing changes (the ones that take time to implement) aren’t effective until 2010!

Personally, I thought the ad was entirely misleading, selling a $347.00 guide that you don’t need until next year (if at all).  And truthfully, I’m very familiar with the changes; they aren’t all that drastic and they’ll be easy to implement given a couple of months notice.

So … Leslie being Leslie just had to contact Inside Mortgage Finance. My entire e-mail said,

Subject: Inaccuracy, very concerned

The new TILA/HOEPA changes are not effective until 10-1-09, yet you are advertising otherwise to sell “IMF’s Guide to the New TILA/HOEPA Mortgage Rule,”  I’m very concerned that you don’t even know the dates.

I couldn’t believe how defensive the response was from Guy Cecala, CEO & Publisher, Inside Mortgage Finance Publications, Inc.:

We are very aware that most of the provisions in the new TILA/HOEPA rule have an effective date of 10/1/2009 as we have read and analyzed the 400 plus pages of preamble and regulations that were finalized on July 14. Are you suggesting this “final rule” is not new because the effective date is a year away? And are you suggesting we should somehow wait a year and then publish our special report - even though nothing is likely to change in the interim?

What we are selling is a special report that tells people what’s in the final rule the Fed issued back in July - no more, no less. It’s not for us to say whether people should be worried about these changes now or in a year’s time.

Whew, I guess I was put in my place!  So you know, the underlines were mine, not his.  I just though they were rather telling.

And for what it’s worth, the entire RULE is only 94 pages - The preamble is comments made before the rule, and have no bearing on the final rule.

In the end, it’s not the product selling that I mind; I do that myself.  It’s just when a large and supposedly reputable company SCARES you (with pending legal changes) into buying a product that you don’t need.  And I think that’s exactly what they are doing here.

Tags: , , , , , , ,