Industry trade groups called on the CFPB to encourage consumers to contact financial services firms directly about their complaints, rather than going through the bureau. In response to the CFPB’s request for information on the process of handling consumer complaints and consumer inquiries, a number of industry groups said the bureau should direct consumers to first seek redress directly from financial institutions before filing complaints to the CFPB ...

The Mortgage Bankers Association recently asked the CFPB to exempt business-to-business loans secured by multifamily properties from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting. The MBA met with the CFPB leadership recently to discuss the HMDA requirement. “The bureau appeared receptive to our concerns,” said trade group officials. Among a number of suggestions, the MBA said HMDA reporting on business-to-business loans secured by multifamily ...

Mortgage-related consumer complaints filed with the CFPB have shown double-digit declines in every major category at the midway point in the year, according to a new Inside the CFPB analysis. At the six-month mark, consumer complaints about loan applications have seen the most significant decline, down 35.0 percent for the first half from the comparable period in 2017. On a quarterly basis, this type of complaint dropped 10.8 percent from 1Q18 to [Includes an exclusive chart] ...

CFPB Joins Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. The CFPB recently joined a new Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, created by President Trump pursuant to an executive order. The task force is led by the Department of Justice, with the participation of the CFPB, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission. The task force will provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution of cases [Includes four briefs] ...

Prepayment speeds for VA and FHA loans are expected to converge due to changes in the refinance requirements for VA home loans, according to Wells Fargo Securities analysts.

Data-based technological innovations are creating more opportunities for lenders to assess the risks posed by consumers who have traditionally been denied access to credit. While the conversation on exploring alternative data has been ongoing for the past few years, the industry now appears to be taking steps toward making this a reality.

Nonbank online lenders, especially smaller ones, are concerned about the high cost of originating a loan. In a new study published by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services and Lendit Fintech, 77 percent of the nonbank respondents said the cost of funding is among their top three concerns. Thirty-eight percent listed it as their first concern. Deloitte noted the nonbank fintech market landscape is made up of a few large players and many small ones. In fact, the majority of survey participants ...

Although a number of large banks have recently shown more interest in the secondary market for mortgage servicing rights, there is no sign that the migration toward nonbanks is ending. A new Inside The GSEs analysis of mortgage-backed securities data shows that independent mortgage bankers increased their holdings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MSR by 2.0 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2018. Depository institutions recorded an 0.5 percent decline in GSE servicing rights over the same period. Most of the bank shrinkage came from the four institutions with over $1 trillion in total assets. Although Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup still held a whopping...

A federal court held this week that the single-director structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, headed by Director Mel Watt, violates the constitution. The ruling in Collins v. FHFA was handed down in Texas by a three judge-panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It represents the most recent major ruling in a number of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholder cases filed against the federal government. “We found, after an in-depth examination, that the FHFA is excessively insulated from executive branch influence and is, therefore, structured in violation of the Constitution,” the judges state in their 83-page ruling. And although Congress can create an independent agency, the court determined that elected officials cannot insulate...

Fannie Mae’s new mortgage insurance pilot announced last week is troubling to mortgage insurers who continue to question the GSEs’ blurring of lines between primary and secondary markets. Fannie’s Enterprise-Paid Mortgage Insurance program is billed as just a way to give lenders another option for obtaining mortgage insurance for high loan-to-value loans. Under the pilot, Fannie will arrange primary MI coverage for existing private MIs or a panel of affiliated reinsurers. Fannie said the new option allows the GSE to streamline the operational requirements of participating lenders, increase the certainty of coverage and better manage Fannie’s counterparty risk. Fannie officials explained that they expect traditional mortgage insurance to be the primary cover for loans with LTVs over 80 percent.