On March 15, the American Financial Services Association issued the following media statement:

AFSA welcomes the bipartisan New Responsible Lending Act that has been put forth by Representatives Bob Ney (R-OH) and Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) to protect borrowers from abusive mortgage lending practices. Many of the bill's provisions seem to be consistent with the voluntary standards that AFSA members have adhered to for many years.

In particular, we are pleased that the legislation includes a national standard to regulate high cost mortgage lending. Though AFSA has long supported states' rights to enact legislation in the mortgage lending area, it has seen widespread failure of these laws to strike a balance between protecting the consumer and allowing widespread access to credit.

Uniformity is needed to ensure mortgage lenders who serve higher-risk borrowers won't be forced to deal with a balkanized regulatory system. Therefore, we believe the time has come to support the concept of a "true" national standard that will replace the myriad of state and local statutes and ordinances which purport to address this important issue.