Last week ALTA held meetings with the Treasury Department and with key House Financial Services Committee staff to explore administration and congressional openness to modifying the President's legislation to create a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) as it affects the title insurance industry. As previously discussed, our concern is that powers proposed to be given to the new agency are so broad as to effectively nationalize the regulation of title insurance. Our proposal is to limit federal oversight of the industry to existing authority as spelled out under RESPA and TILA. The door was not slammed in our face, so we are working on language.

Five hearings were held last week on the CFPA in the House Financial Services Committee and one in the Senate Banking Committee. Please click here for the hearing summaries. The House hearings focused on taking in some stakeholder input and, no surprise here, consumer groups were very supportive of the CFPA proposal. Many other groups, however, opposed the plan. This Washington Post article has a helpful overview of some of the interests at work.

In addition to our CFPA meetings, ALTA met last week with Senators Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and Representatives Mark Kirk (R-IL), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Andre Carson (D-IN), Bill Posey (R-FL) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

If you have questions, please contact ALTA Director of Government Affairs Justin Ailes at 202.261.2937 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .