Why is it that Barney Franks and his co-authors of HR 1728 think it's a good idea to do away with mortgage brokers by eliminating the yield spread premium (YSP)?

HR 1728 will make it illegal for mortgage brokers to earn a YSP when pricing mortgage loans to consumers. YSP is used to offer the public "zero points" or "nocost loans" and allow brokers to be competitive with mortgage bankers and direct lenders such as Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and GMAC.

A rose by any other name is still a rose. The banks and mortgage bankers earn a "gain on sale," which is the same thing as a YSP. The difference is that banks and mortgage bankers aren't required to disclose their ability to earn a gain on sale.

This allows the same banks that caused the current economic crisis by offering subprime loans to make billions of dollars in secret profits without disclosing a penny to consumers. These same big banks are the largest beneficiaries of the bailout in the form of TARP funds.

Isn't it a coincidence that these same money-grabbing lenders (B of A, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and GMAC) are the largest contributors to Barney Franks and the other Congress members who authored HR 1728?

I don't think so.

Please, contact your senators now that HR 1728 has passed the House of Representatives and ask them to vote against it in the U.S. Senate because it will eliminate competition for the big banks which decimated our economy with their subprime debacle and now are changing their accounting procedures to allow them to reap even more TARP bailout money, funded by our tax dollars.

Now that's a subject for another rant. Ruth Ann Cooper Newbury Park