The CFPB has certainly borne the brunt of a lot of criticism since its inception, but even some of its critics say it’s not right to blast the bureau for something lawmakers are responsible for – in this case, all of the mandates from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. “I’ve been relatively critical of the CFPB, but I’m the first to say you can’t blame an agency if the issue is in the statute,” said Mark Calabria, director of financial regulation studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, DC. “I don’t...

The CFPB issued a report last week highlighting problems such as unfair and deceptive practices in the mortgage servicing market that the bureau uncovered through its supervision program in 2013. The CFPB’s supervisory report describes several instances where servicers violated the Dodd-Frank Act’s ban on unfair, deceptive or abusive acts and practices. For instance, examiners found that two servicers engaged in unfair practices by failing to honor existing permanent or trial loan modifications after a servicing transfer, which resulted in...

In a development that could be quite instructive for any recipient of a CFPB civil investigative demand, the bureau has denied the petition filed by CheckSmart Financial Company this past September to modify or set aside a CID it received from the agency in 2013. First, CheckSmart argued that the bureau’s CID does not provide sufficient notice of a lawfully authorized purpose because it did not adequately describe the conduct under investigation, and thus fails to comply with relevant portions of the Dodd-Frank Act. However, citing its rules relating...

The CFPB has issued a proposed rule that would allow it to supervise “larger participant” nonbank international money-transfer providers for the first time. The CFPB’s proposed rule would subject any nonbank international money transfer provider that provides more than 1 million international money transfers annually to the bureau’s supervisory authority under the agency’s remittance rule, which took effect in October 2013. Under the proposal, bureau examiners would be able to examine larger nonbank international money-transfer providers...

As mortgage lenders begin preparing for the new mortgage disclosure regime being instituted by the CFPB’s final rule, they should revisit lessons learned during their previous adventures with the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “RESPA reform from January 1, 2010, is still close in many of our minds, and we remember back to ’09 being a year that we spent a massive amount of time implementing that new regulation,” said Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division at Wells Fargo. Then in 2010...

Heightened scrutiny by the CFPB of potentially discriminatory auto lending practices is probably going to end up raising lender regulatory costs in 2014, according to analysts at Fitch Ratings.“Fitch believes the CFPB is currently in discussions with various auto finance players, including banks, captive finance arms of auto manufacturers and independent finance companies regarding their lending practices,” the rating agency said. The regulatory actions have to do with the auto lending industry’s widespread practice of making...

The qualified mortgage is here, and while the rotation of the earth has yet to slow, there are still several areas of the regulation that are not crystal clear to much of the industry, including some questions having to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases of mortgages being originated under the new regime. For instance, “If lenders bake the loan-level price adjustments into the interest rate, are they allowed to show those adjustments to the originator? If they show them, will the CFPB count them into the points and fees?” asked Tammy...

The Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General has completed its audit of the CFPB’s consumer financial Civil Penalty Fund, giving the bureau a passing grade. “Overall, our audit determined that the CFPB has been implementing internal controls for the CPF since June 2012,” said the OIG, citing the bureau’s development of the CPF rule and various internal procedures. “During our audit of the CPF, which was conducted from June 2013 to November 2013, we identified an opportunity to improve the controls developed to implement the CPF,” the OIG said...

Public Comments on the Mortgage Closing Process are Due Feb. 7. Early in January, the CFPB solicited consumer comments on the mortgage closing process, specifically asking consumers to identify the key “pain points” associated with mortgage closing and how they might by addressed by market innovations and technology. The bureau specifically said it wanted comments on how to increase the use of technology and promote inventions that encourage a more streamlined mortgage closing process while also improving consumer knowledge. The CFPB...

Total FHA delinquencies rose slightly while the percentage of seriously delinquent loans remained flat in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA servicing data. Data showed delinquencies of 90 days or more remained unchanged at 8.1 percent from the previous quarter even as total FHA delinquencies increased a bit to 15.2 percent from 15.1 quarter over quarter. The share of loans that are 30-60 days behind on their payment also increased to 7.1 percent from 6.9 percent over the same period. As of Dec. 31, FHA servicers had a combined ... [1 chart]