Senate Committee Votes To Fingerprint Lenders

tjstork recommends a blog post up at Openmarket.org on the passage by a Senate committee of a fingerprinting provision in a foreclosure assistance bill. The provision would require thousands of people connected with the mortgage industry, even tangentially — possibly including part-time and seasonal real estate agents — to send fingerprints to the feds for storage in a database. No explanation is in evidence as to how this would help the problem of loan fraud. The measure passed the Senate Banking Committee by a bipartisan majority of 19 to 2. "The measure the committee passed states that 'an individual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first... obtaining a unique identifier.' To obtain this 'identifier,' an individual is required to 'furnish to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry 'information concerning the applicant's identity, including fingerprints for submission' to the FBI and other government agencies."

Re:goodluckwiththat

[ScrewMaster]

Good luck in getting Guido "The Killer Pimp" Loanshark to send in his finger prints...

Oh, I'm sure that Guido will be sending in fingerprints. They may or may not be his fingerprints, you understand ...

Re:goodluckwiththat

[JustOK]

Warning, may contain traces of knuckles.

Re:naturally

[Cally]

Wait - are you saying our elected representatives might act in a way calculated to maximise their own, narrow, short-term interests?

Woa, dude. My whole world just turned upside-down.

Re:naturally

[Opportunist]

If this is creeping for you, I guess your car's meter shows speed in fractions of c.