The mortgage banking industry has been lobbying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Congressional staff recently, expressing its concerns in particular with the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage proposed rule. Lenders of all sizes expressed their concerns about automated underwriting systems, widely accepted standards, implementation concerns, points and fees restrictions and the need for a legal safe harbor. But the legal safe harbor remains the most important of these issues to most lenders. “The QM ability-to-pay rule has enormous liability associated with it,” an industry lobbyist confided. “The issue there is, if we don’t have a really solid definition as to what a qualified mortgage is, and we don’t have a safe harbor and the guidelines are firm – the industry’s got enormous potential liability and is likely to be sued all the time.”