The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is requesting a meeting with presidential adviser Elizabeth Warren to discuss the second set of prototypes integrating Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA) and Truth in Lending Act (TILA) disclosures released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on June 27.

In a letter to Warren by Stephen A. O’Connor, MBA’s senior vice president for public policy and industry relations, the trade group states that a direct meeting, rather than a request for comment, would provide lenders a better understanding of the direction of the project so they could offer more informed comments and would offer stakeholders an opportunity to explain challenges under RESPA and TILA and the practical concerns posed by the current prototypes.

“The MBA has long been committed to greater transparency in the mortgage process and appreciates that the [CFPB] is treating this initiative as a high priority and moving expeditiously,” O’Connor wrote. “Nevertheless, we do not believe the weeklong comment period provided, which included the July 4 holiday, was sufficient. This is especially so considering that comments are sought on the presentation of closing costs. This is a matter that the Department of Housing and Urban Development considered for several years through two successive rulemakings that engendered tens of thousands of comments.”

I can’t understand why especially in this time of fiscal austerity that we need another gov’t agency(CFPB) to take another look at something HUD spent an exhaustive amount of time on just a couple years ago.