Prepared Remarks of MBA President and CEO Bob Broeksmit, CMB, at the 2025 MBA Annual Convention and Expo

LAS VEGAS (October 20, 2025) — Bob Broeksmit, CMB, MBA's President and CEO, delivered the following remarks here at MBA's 2025 Annual Convention and Expo: 

Good morning! It’s great to be back, and to see so many friends and familiar faces.

Most of you have been here before. Some of you are here for the first time. But no matter how long you’ve been part of MBA, I want you to know that this annual conference is going to be different. We’re here to celebrate some of the biggest achievements in MBA history—and this will be remembered as a year of results!

Think back to where we were this time last year. We held our annual conference just a few short days before the presidential election. We didn’t know which way it would go. We didn’t know what policies were coming down the pike. But as I said then, the MBA was ready for anything. We were ready to fight the biggest threats. We were ready to seize the biggest opportunities.

If I may say so… even I didn’t know how right I was!

We’re now 10 months into a new Congress. We’re now 10 months into a new White House. And MBA has had a hand in almost 10 percent of all the laws that Congress has passed and the President has signed. All told, we’ve shaped three major pieces of legislation—including two standalone bills on key industry priorities.

It’s hard to express how extraordinary that is. In a good year, we might get a single legislative victory. It’s almost never a standalone bill—usually, we get our issues and priorities included in bigger, must-pass bills. But most years, we don’t get any legislation at all. It’s not for lack of trying. We’re talking with key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, from January through December. But passing legislation in such a closely divided Congress is a years-long process. Most of the time, we’re building for the future, laying the groundwork for the year ahead.

But this year, our hard work paid off in spades. The first big victory is one that Christine briefly mentioned in her remarks. It’s the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act—and it finally ends the scourge of mortgage trigger leads.

We worked on this bill for more than two years. Progress was slow, and at times, it was frustrating. Frankly, it was hard to keep track of all the false starts and sudden stops. But through it all, MBA never wavered, and the longer it went, the harder we fought. We built a bipartisan coalition to get it done. And when this legislation finally passed, it had unanimous support in the House and Senate. That almost never happens.

This is a massive win for you. When fully implemented early next year, your customers will be safe from the barrage of unwanted calls, texts, and emails they receive the moment they apply for a mortgage. We’re building a better home-buying process for everyone. All that to say—farewell, trigger leads, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

The second big legislative victory came just a few weeks before the trigger leads bill. It’s the VA

Home Loan Program Reform Act, and it will prevent a nationwide crisis for America’s veterans.

We’ve built toward this law since the partial claim option for VA home loans expired three years ago. We doubled down on our efforts when the VA Servicing Purchase program, or VASP, was canceled earlier this year. Tens of thousands of veterans were staring at the possibility of foreclosure—and we rallied to save them from disaster.

From the start, MBA united a diverse coalition to tackle this crisis, and we worked with lawmakers and the VA to design the solution. We then secured strong bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. And we helped tell the stories of struggling veterans to build a sense of urgency behind reform.

Thanks to us, veterans can now feel safe in their homes. But the MBA isn’t done. We are working with the VA to implement this reform quickly and effectively. And we’re already fighting for permanent relief. Our nation’s veterans deserve nothing less—and I’m confident that more victories are coming.

The third and final big law we shaped is the “One Big Beautiful” tax-and-spending bill that President Trump signed on the Fourth of July, which happens to be my birthday. Most people may think this bill has nothing to do with mortgage finance. But that legislation had the potential to profoundly hurt MBA members and your customers if it did not renew certain tax provisions that were scheduled to expire. MBA made sure that didn’t happen. And not only did we prevent you from being hurt—we secured enhancements that will help you for decades to come.

Your customers faced the possibility of damaging changes to the mortgage interest deduction and capital gains tax exclusion for primary residences. You were also facing a slew of potential tax hikes, especially for businesses that aren’t registered as C corps. Bottom line, the bill posed a threat to both our residential and commercial members, so MBA took immediate and sustained action.

Even before the start of the year, we told the White House and Congress that failure to act would ultimately punish the American people. Lawmakers listened, and on issue after issue, they gave you the relief and reform you need. Thanks to our efforts, the mortgage interest deduction is now permanent, as is the deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums. The 20% deduction for pass-throughs is permanent, too, delivering tax parity for S-corps and partnerships with C-corps.  And we made sure MSRs still receive favorable tax treatment.

All of this was at risk at the start of the year. But now you have the stability and relief you deserve!

These legislative victories already make this one of the most fruitful years in MBA history. But the year isn’t over. The Senate has passed a package of 40 new bills to expand and preserve housing supply. Some of them include MBA priorities, and the House will consider the legislation soon.

One key reason we’re achieving so much is because we have strong relationships with the most important lawmakers. This year, through MORPAC, we’ve held events with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Mark Warner, a key member of the Senate Banking and Finance Committees. We had one scheduled two weeks ago with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, too, but had to reschedule due to the government shutdown.

It shows the impact you can have by giving to MORPAC and MORPAC Direct. Our political work is crucial to our legislative progress, and I hope all of you will get involved.

But shaping the law is just one part of our work in D.C. this year. We have also played a pivotal role in shaping the regulatory agenda of the new administration, with great results. We adopted a new strategy in the wake of the presidential election. As soon as we knew President Trump had won, we began identifying the actions we wanted him to take. And as soon as we knew who he’d nominated to key agencies, we began working to help them hit the ground running.

When the new leaders of HUD, FHFA, and the CFPB took office, we handed each of their teams a day-one list of priority reforms. Those lists have informed some of the biggest decisions their agencies have made. All told, they’ve taken action on 11 of the most important deregulatory items that we recommended. And even as the White House has shrunk the size and scope of agencies, we’ve continued to partner with them to do what needs to be done.

A good example is FHA’s multifamily mortgage insurance premium. The agency reduced and standardized it last month, and it’s a big win for our multifamily members. Another great example is at the CFPB, which has announced its intention to reform the Loan Officer Compensation Rule. That’s music to our ears, and the MBA is actively working with the Bureau to make the rule much better.

We’re also working closely with FHFA on credit scores and reporting. The good news is that FHFA has already unleashed new competition by opening the door for lenders to soon begin using VantageScore. Now we’re pushing to fix reporting, which matters even more. To put it bluntly, we want to end the mandate that a tri-merge report be provided on every loan, regardless of the risk profile. This single move will increase choice and lower costs for millions of lenders and borrowers. You’ll be happy to hear that administration officials are hearing us out. They want to make homebuying more affordable for more Americans—and we share that noble and urgent goal.

Looking ahead, we see many more opportunities to deliver for you. But I want to focus briefly on one in particular. The Trump administration is weighing the future of the GSEs, and MBA is intimately involved in the discussion. We’ve already had multiple meetings with Treasury and FHFA. We don’t just have a seat at the table. We’re near the head of the table—and we’re speaking loud and clear.

Our impact is evident in the tone that senior officials are now taking. They’ve said that any reform will be, and I quote, “informed, careful, and calibrated.” They’ve also made clear that mortgage credit won’t get more expensive, and that they’re pushing hard to bring costs down. These are goals we fully share, and rest assured: MBA won’t rest until GSE release is done right.  We’ll have a lot more to say about this at our 10:30 session.

I want to thank all of you for supporting our efforts on so many fronts. It truly has been a year of historic achievement.

But it’s also historic in another, and sadder, way. One of our best is retiring this year, and as I close, I want to pay tribute to the incomparable Marcia Davies.

Few have done more for this industry than Marcia. She has spent more than 30 years making us stronger, serving in both the public and private sectors. She joined MBA in the dark days after the Financial Crisis, and her uncanny ability to see around corners, time and again, helped us stay ahead of big changes and achieve big victories. I also want to say that while I’m her boss, Marcia has never shied away from telling me when I’ve screwed up. She’s always been right—and I respect her courage.

In fact, I think courageous is the best word to describe Marcia. She has the courage to fight for what’s right—for her team, for our members, and for the industry as a whole. And in a unique way, she had the courage to recognize the role that women play in mortgage finance, and the lack of respect they often receive. In 2016, she started mPower to right that wrong, and she has turned it into a movement. How many people can say they’ve started a movement? Marcia can, without a doubt.

Marcia, I want you to know how much we respect you. I want you to know how much we’ll miss you. And on behalf of all of us, I ask that you stand and accept our gratitude!

What do you say after something like that? I think my best move is to get off stage. Thank you again for being here. And thank you, as always, for your partnership with us and leadership for America.