Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, in a speech followed by a Q and A before the Exchequer Club, said more commotion than necessary is being made about the qualified mortgage (QM) rule. He says lenders will continue lending as they have in the past, even outside the rule, according to nationalmortgagenews. For a lender “to not make those mortgages and leave that money on the table and leave people un-served because of some vague fear that they can’t quite articulate; that doesn’t sound to me like the kind of good decision-making that lenders have made for years,” said Cordray. He agrees with the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, Mark Zandi, who says $20 billion of the $1.25 trillion mortgage market will fall outside the QM rule, which amounts to two percent of the total. Noting the agency is trying to be flexible in its overall approach, when questioned about the extensive mortgage data the CFPB is currently gathering, Cordray said the information collected will help a future director make more solid policy decisions. Speaking of his own battle with Republicans over his confirmation, as MHProNews has learned, he does not profess to know what was in the mind of the Dodd-Frank Act congressional creators, but feels the structure allows the ability to reshape policy as needed.

(Photo credit: ABCNews–CFPB Director Richard Cordray)