File this one under “things you wouldn’t think you’d have to tell someone”: The Federal Reserve moved today to outlaw a number of shady practices among mortgage lenders. My personal favorite: “a restriction on the use of the word ‘fixed’ to describe the terms of a loan whose rate will change over time.” Other welcome new restrictions:

— Prohibit lenders from loaning to borrowers who cannot repay the loan from income and assets other than a home’s value.

— Require lenders to verify a borrower’s income and assets.

— Ban prepayment penalties for the first four years of any adjustable-rate subprime mortgage; other subprime mortgages could have no prepayment penalties for two years.

[...]

— Prohibit advertising in which different loans are compared unless all payments and rates are also disclosed.

— Prohibit foreign-language mortgage ads in which required disclosures are presented in English.

— Prohibit a lender from encouraging or coercing an appraiser to misrepresent a home’s assessed value. [!]

— Require lenders to credit borrowers’ payments on the day of receipt.

There are many more new regs that I can’t quote without running afoul of the fair-use standard, so go and read the whole thing.