The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will soon award a contract to create improved, simpler mortgage disclosure forms that would spell the ins and outs to consumers in an easy-to-understand fashion, Bloomberg reports.

Elizabeth Warren, who is setting up the bureau, has indicated previously that she would like to see "a standard document of one or two pages to replace about 80 percent of the mortgage disclosures mandated by the Truth In Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The current 'pile of papers' confuses consumers and is costly to business, Warren has said."

This is hardly a panacea, but it is a good move, and the industry would be wise to support it. In fact, it should play as strong a role in creating it as possible. The last thing the industry ought to do is give up its influence.

Enhanced disclosure is hard to argue against, and depending on how it is structured, it might prove to be a very valuable tool when consumers compare products across banks and lenders.

That said, all too many people are accustomed to blowing off the boring disclosure and relying on salesmen. Fine print is easy for a good salesmen to get around. And mortgage brokers, before the implosion, proved themselves to be adept salesmen to be sure.

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