Real Estate LEADER Magazine (Summer 2004) - Mississippi ...

LEGAL EASE
BY QUENTIN WHITWELL
REALTORS ® oppose
latest federal preemption of state laws
OCC rule preempts state predatory lending laws and favors megabanks
Urging Congress to become more active and diligent in using its oversight
powers to bridle excessive and overly zealous federal regulations
remains a priority of the National and Mississippi Associations of REAL-
TORS ® .
On February 12, 2004, the federal government’s Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency (OCC) finalized a rule preempting state consumer protection,
licensing and lending laws for megabanks and their operating subsidiaries. The
rule is the latest in a series of federal government decisions that give special
treatment to big corporations without considering the potentially negative
impact on consumers. The rule is helping to create an industry that is dominated
by a few huge banking concerns, leaving consumers with fewer choices
and higher rates.
NAR and MAR believe the OCC preemption rule is bad for consumers, bad
for small business and bad for REALTORS ® . And we’re not alone. The governors
of all 50 states, their attorneys general (including our own Attorney
General Jim Hood), state banking supervisors and state legislatures are joined
by consumer groups such as AARP and the Consumer Federation of America
in opposition to the OCC rule. Only the OCC itself and the megabanks it regulates
support the rule.
MAR has written letters asking the OCC to rescind its rule and is asking its
members to write or call their congressman to express their opposition. MAR
President Bruce Kammer has also written to Mississippi’s four Congressmen
and two U.S. Senators asking them to urge the OCC to rescind the onerous rule.
"If federal regulators are not stopped or questioned by Congress, they will
eventually influence the nation’s smaller banks to get federal charters and, in
the process, eliminate the states’ voice on consumer protection issues,"
Kammer said.
We believe that only Congress should debate and enact laws that can so
profoundly change whole sectors of the economy. Unelected regulators should
not be deciding the fate of whole industries, Kammer added.
Similar to the proposal to permit banks to engage in real estate and the
withdrawn reform proposal of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
(RESPA) to give competitive advantage to mortgage lenders over settlement
service providers, the OCC rule gives tremendous advantages to the largest
national banking and financial services companies at the expense of consumers
and much smaller real estate companies.
The OCC rule sets the stage for a national real estate licensing process that
preempts the state licensing laws now in place. And it could lead to a vast array
of other federal preemptions. n
Adapted from National Association of REALTORS ® talking points. Edited by
Quentin Whitwell, Vice President of Public Policy for the Mississippi
Association of REALTORS ® . E-mail him at qwhitwell@msrealtors.org.
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Farish,
Schwartz
& Orgler, PLLC
Attorneys at Law
15487 Oak Lane Drive, Ste 200 I
Gulfport, MS 39503
228-832-8550
2355 Pass Road, Suite B
Biloxi, MS 39531
228-388-7441
7 / MISSISSIPPI REAL ESTATE LEADER / Summer 2004