Yield Spread Premium (YSP) is without a doubt the most misunderstood and highly profitable secret the mortgage industry has kept from the American mortgage consumer.

The government’s own number pegs the consumer cost of the yield spread premium deception at $16,000,000,000 a year

…yes that’s billion, with a “b”! My own figures put it into the hundreds of billions of dollars since the government’s numbers were woefully short-sighted.

The FTC this week announced a “crack down” on mortgage advertisers who use deceptive language in there solicitations. This comes on the heels of a statement earlier in the summer by Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, that the Fed plans to make changes to federal rules on mortgage marketing by the end of the year. This action and announcement seems “consumer friendly” and all, but it really is just…too little, too late.