Update on Federal Preemption and State Mortgage Lending Laws

摘要

At various times in the course of implementing federal laws governing the establishment and operations of federally-chartered depository institutions, federal financial institution regulators function as both quasi-legislative bodies and agents of the executive branch of the federal government. As summarized above, the majority of recent judicial decisions have found the agencies' preemption determinations to be valid exercises of these delegated responsibilities. The policy debate regarding the appropriate scope of federal preemption of state law is likely to continue. It appears, based on current trends, that nothing less than Congressional action will be capable of reversing a largely consistent line of authority from the courts and the agencies that provides the agencies with broad federal preemption authority relating to federally-chartered institutions and their subsidiaries.