As rumors of the demise of HMDA reporting swirl, as well as a 50 percent reduction in HUD headcount and actual VA cuts, think about this the next time you go into a grocery store: It’s not like lending is like buying organic meat or produce. More than in most retail transactions, the organic consumer is buying both a thing and an assurance about a thing, and stores shouldn’t misrepresent something. The consumer may be ill-prepared to deal with that. I mention this because a certain segment of the population would prefer that the CFPB vanish. (Elon Musk has his own “connection” with the CFPB: it has a database containing hundreds of complaints about his car company, Tesla, and it regulates digital payment platforms, something Musk is developing at X.) Others are quick to say, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” and remind us that plenty of states will step in. For example, in California, thank you to Scott S. who reminds me that misrepresenting occupancy can be a felony! California’s AB 3108 makes it felony mortgage fraud for a “mortgage broker or person who originates a loan” to intentionally “instruct or otherwise deliberately cause a borrower to sign documents reflecting the terms of a business, commercial, or agricultural loan, with knowledge that the borrower intends to use the loan proceeds primarily for personal, family, or household use” or “instruct or otherwise deliberately causes a borrower to sign documents reflecting the terms of a bridge loan, with knowledge that the loan proceeds will be not used to acquire or construct a new dwelling.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by CoreLogic. Originators who leverage their Marketing Solutions as part of their customer retention practices have seen their pipelines increase by up to 4 times when compared to traditional lead generation methods. Hear an interview with Verisk’s Kingsley Greenland on how the Los Angeles fires and flooding in North Carolina are altering catastrophe models used for insurance pricing.)