Organization urges members to contact Senators
The Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) has issued a call to action encouraging members to contact their Senators and urge advancement of a bill backed by its parent association, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), to clamp down on the abusive use of so-called trigger leads.
In an email to members on Wednesday (July 17), the MAA expressed its “strong support” for the Hagerty/Reed Amendment, which proposes adding a Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act – including measures to curtail trigger leads – to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025.
The MBA and its members have worked since last year to develop a bipartisan approach to trigger leads, a marketing tool that has long drawn the ire of brokers and other mortgage professionals.
The MAA said adding the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act to the NDAA would mark 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.”
Its message urged members to contact their Senators and lobby them to cosponsor the bill and vote for the amendment to help reduce the prevalence of trigger leads in the industry.
The amendment would restrict the use of homebuyer data to specific and limited circumstances during the real estate transaction, and would require consumers to explicitly authorize solicitations – or for a third party to certify that it has originated that borrower’s current mortgage loan, or is a specific institution within a deposit account for the specific consumer.
MAA’s message template for members contacting their Senators suggested that the “bombardment” of mortgage shoppers by phone, text or mail can be “overwhelming, invasive in their volume, and result in consumer confusion and frustration.”
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