Consumer Law

FTC Workshop on Consumer Information and the Mortgage Market

By Jeff Sovern

On May 29, the FTC will host what sounds like an important conference on the role of consumer information in the mortgage marketplace.  Here's an excerpt from the FTC's announcement:

* * * The purpose of this conference is to highlight and assess the role of consumer information in the current mortgage crisis from an economic perspective. An economic analysis that includes a historical understanding of developments in the mortgage market, as well as empirical research on consumer use and understanding of mandatory, pre-purchase, information disclosures, can link together disparate elements of the current mortgage policy debate.

Experts from several relevant specialties, including real estate finance and economics, consumer behavior, and information regulation, will be brought together to examine how consumer information, and information regulation, affects consumer choices, mortgage outcomes, and consumer welfare. For example, panelists will discuss the causes and effects of mortgage market product developments, the role of consumer information in the mortgage market and how it relates to the current mortgage crisis, and strategies for ensuring that new consumer protection regulations, especially mandatory information disclosures, will be designed in ways that will provide the greatest possible long-run net benefit to consumers. This exchange may yield concrete ideas for the development and implementation of more cohesive, comprehensive, and effective consumer information policies.

You can learn more here.  Included at that site is a list of speakers, an agenda, relevant articles by participants, and a link for a web cast.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).