The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is pushing for a bill aimed at curbing the use of mortgage credit “trigger leads” to be added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment the organization said will help protect borrowers’ privacy.
Senate Amendment 2358 would add the language from S. 3502, the “Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2024,” to the NDAA for FY 2025.
“MBA has worked hard since last year to build bipartisan momentum in Congress for legislation to curb the abusive use of trigger leads,” MBA said in a statement to Dodd Frank Update, echoing the sentiment expressed in a memo from its grassroots organization, the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA). “We are encouraging our members to contact (or thank) their Senators and urge them to cosponsor S. 3502 and, in turn, vote for the amendment to be offered by Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to the NDAA when it's considered in the coming weeks.”
Reed introduced S. 3502 in December last year, as part of a bipartisan effort to restrict credit reporting agencies’ ability to sell information about consumers’ credit activity and contact details to lenders and other creditors.
“A vote in the Senate to add the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act to this year’s NDAA would be a critical step towards curtailing the practice of firms seeking to confuse mortgage applicants by inundating them with phone calls, texts, or direct mail solicitations,” MBA added.
In a memo to its members, the MAA asserted getting the bill added to the NDAA would be a “critical step towards curtailing the consumer harm resulting from firms seeking to confuse and/or deceive mortgage applicants by inundating them with phone calls or direct mail solicitations.”
MBA and its coalition partners said they plan to continue working with Hagerty, Reed and key committee leaders on both sides of the political aisle to try to advance the proposal as the Senate votes on amendments to the NDAA.
S. 3502 closely resembles another bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. John Rose (R-Tenn.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) in 2022 called the Protecting Consumers from Abusive Mortgage Leads Act (H.R. 4198).