Paul F. Hancock--mortgage industry attorney and fair-lending expert

In an interview, Paul F. Hancock, mortgage industry attorney and fair-lending expert, talked about the just-released 2006 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, as well as the state of the current legal environment for the mortgage industry. He did not find many surprises in the latest HMDA report findings. It still shows the same issues -- that minorities are disproportionately in higher-priced loans. The industry is facing a lot of very difficult issues right now. Certainly the issue of liquidity and the ability to be able to continue to operate are very important. Many, many lenders have gone out of business. A lot of the products that have evolved over the years were designed to remove barriers to minority homeownership and homeownership by first-time homebuyers. A lot of those borrowers -- probably a great, great majority of those borrowers -- are creditworthy borrowers. The industry went too far in offering products that had too many layers of risk.