Thursday, May 11, 2006 - Federal Reserve Set to Hold Summer Hearings on Home Equity Lending

The hearings will focus on:
· Predatory lending and the impact of the HOEPA rules and similar state and local laws on the subprime lending market;
· Nontraditional mortgage products and reverse mortgages; and
· The process by which consumers select lenders and loan products in the subprime marketplace.

The hearings are scheduled as follows:

· June 7, 2006 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 230 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois;
· June 9, 2006 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Ten Independence Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
· June 16, 2006 at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 101 Market Street, San Francisco, California; and
· July 11, 2006 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 1000 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia.

Each hearing is scheduled to run from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. The Federal Reserve last held hearings under HOEPA in 2000. Those hearings served as the platform for the revisions to Regulation Z that went into effect in 2002.