The CFPB recently finalized its proposed amendment to allow certain financial institutions to be exempt from sending annual privacy notices to their customers. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act generally requires financial institutions to provide customers with annual notices regarding their privacy policies. If the institution shares consumer information with third parties, the annual notice must provide customers with an opportunity to opt out of such sharing. The CFPB issued ...

The CFPB recently signaled it will seek to appeal the constitutionality ruling by a New York federal judge. The CFPB has filed a letter with Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, requesting the court to “enter a final judgement” in the RD Legal Funding case. If this request is granted, the CFPB will be able to appeal Preska’s ruling that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ...

The CFPB recently joined with a group of foreign regulators to cooperate on the regulation of fintech, with the aim to facilitate responsible cross-border experimentation of new ideas. The group proposed to create the Global Financial Innovation Network to help new technology grow in a more relaxed regulatory environment worldwide. “The network will seek to provide a more efficient way for innovative firms to interact with regulators, helping them navigate ...

A federal court in Texas recently refused for the second time to delay the compliance date of the CFPB’s payday lending rule, which generally leaves the agency only one option to delay the date: through notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures. “There is a significant likelihood that the bureau might extend the compliance deadline” through rulemaking, said Quyen Truong, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Two payday lending trade groups earlier this year ...

The CFPB recently imposed a $69 million judgement against two individuals and a group of payday lending entities controlled by them for cash-grab scams, although most of it will be waived. This is the seventh enforcement action brought by the CFPB so far this year, and also the third involving payday lenders. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri Western Division recently entered an order effectuating a settlement between the CFPB ...

Most of the month-to-month slump was at Freddie, where MBS production fell 8.9 percent from June.

Lenders that offer “fix and flip” financing to single-family investors are having another good year for the most part and see little in the way of either stiff competition or dark clouds on the horizon.

A heavily redacted Federal Housing Finance Agency Inspector General management alert about credit scores, published in late July, involved Fannie Mae CEO Timothy Mayopoulos, sources confirm.The 15-page report only mentioned that a “senior executive” was involved in a conflict-of-interest administrative review pertaining to alternative credit scores. It said that the executive did not disclose “critical information” about potential conflicts of interest arising from a personal relationship. Based on the IG report, it seems that Mayopoulos did disclose and recuse himself from business decisions related to alternative credit scores. But the IG report appears to take issue with the fact that he did not “fully disclose” the information.

With the launch of the single security less than a year away, there are some uncertainties that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the industry expect to have cleared up before making the switch next June. They range from ensuring fungibility between Fannie and Freddie securities, to creating more regulatory clarity, preparing third parties and determining how the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will consider the new security in the to-be-announced market....

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s recent stress test results show that the GSEs could need up to $77.6 billion in a severe economic crisis. But quarterly earnings continue to show a profitability that cancels out the need for a bailout. Required annually by the Dodd-Frank Act, the test of severely adverse scenario is based on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac portfolios as of Dec. 31, 2017....