Mortgage groups push for simpler lending rules

The newly created U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering how best to implement yet another aspect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, this time in regards to borrowers’ ability to pay.

The debate involves two different alternatives to an ability-to-pay requirement, the standards of which defining a “qualified mortgage.”
Both options are meant to ensure the borrower’s ability to repay their mortgage, but one, known as the “safe harbor QM,” has been specified as the best option by the Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association.

The safe harbor option…