For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board today published with the Department of Housing and Urban Development a report on legislative recommendations to the Congress on how to simplify and improve consumer disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The report focuses on four broad policy issues concerning closed-end home-secured loans. The Board and HUD recommend: revising TILA's APR to better reflect the overall cost of credit by defining the finance charge to include costs the consumer is required to pay to obtain the loan, requiring firmer settlement cost disclosures under RESPA through either guaranteed closing costs or estimated costs within a tolerance, revising and streamlining the timing requirements under TILA and RESPA to provide consumers with cost information earlier in the mortgage process, and adding substantive protections to protect consumers against abusive lending practices. To obtain a copy of the joint report, contact the Board's Publication Services, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C. 20551, at (202) 452-3244. The report also will be available through the Federal Reserve Banks. It will be available on the Board's World Wide Web site, at http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/.

Report (670 KB PDF)

1998 Banking and consumer regulatory policy