Far-reaching and controversial financial policies should be determined through legislation, not through regulation. Three out of five homebuyers say the most important service provided by a real estate agent is helping buyers find the right home, not finding or arranging financing. Home sellers, not buyers, are real estate professionals' primary customers. Only two percent of homeowners worry about financing issues involved with selling their homes. People buy homes for shelter and own commercial property in order to operate a business.
Investment is a lesser consideration.
The proposed regulation constitutes a significant change in the nature of products and services banks had been allowed to sell, and could lead the way for banks to enter other services that are essentially commercial in nature. Banks could market their own mortgage products, even if they did not offer the best rates and terms in the marketplace for a particular client. C.A.R. research has shown that the real estate agent is a major influence in a buyer's choice of lender. What is now a very decentralized system of competing firms could become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large institutional players if existing firms are acquired. The end result could be a reduction in the number of firms from which consumers could choose.