McClatchy News Service via Miami Herald: Pro-consumer measures in financial regulation bill

By DAVID LIGHTMAN AND KEVIN G. HALL

The draft legislation that lawmakers used as their starting point Thursday for writing the final version of the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression contains key provisions to combat predatory lending and provide relief from foreclosure.

The 1,974-page bill combines elements of bills that both the Senate and the House of Representatives already have passed. It leaves for negotiation areas where the two chambers took different approaches.

To the delight of consumer advocates, the starting document for the negotiations includes important provisions that target some of the mortgage lending abuses that helped trigger the nation's current financial crisis.

These provisions seek to create minimum standards for mortgages, such as a borrower's ability to repay a loan; discourage predatory lending to minorities and the elderly, and eliminate special bonuses paid to mortgage brokers for getting borrowers into unsuitable loans.

Many of these provisions were absent from the Senate bill, but they were included in legislation that the House passed in December.

The Congressional Black Caucus held up the bill until more attention was paid to distressed minority communities.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a leader of that effort, seemed pleased Thursday.

``I think we can do a lot of good,'' she said.

Including the provisions improves the chances that they'll be in the final legislation, said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer-advocacy group in Durham, N.C.

Negotiators began deliberations on the bill Thursday.