Our goal was to produce clear and comprehensive rules to protect consumers from unfair practices while maintaining the viability of a market for responsible mortgage lending. The rules would apply stricter regulations to higher-priced mortgage loans, which we have defined broadly so as to cover substantially all of the subprime market.
5 The regulations would be enforceable by state and federal supervisory and enforcement agencies as well as by consumers themselves, who could recover statutory damages for violations above and beyond actual damages. The proposed rules cover a range of practices.