A group called The 60 Plus Association has released TV and radio ads in seven states targeting Senate Banking Committee Members who are sponsoring GSE reform legislation. The group claims the bills “allow the government to take over the mortgage industry in an action 'disturbingly similar' to Obamacare.”
One executive, requesting his name not be used, said, “It completely wrecked our last day of the month. We were unable to sending closing packages, send disclosures, export files and such.”
In its heyday, S&P used to rate more than 90 percent of new issuance of non-agency MBS, but in 2013 it accounted for just 40.0 percent of the market by dollar volume.
Moody’s Asks for Public Input on QM-Related Ratings Criteria. Moody’s Investors Service last week put out a request for comments regarding its proposed rating standards for loans originated in the era of the qualified mortgage. The proposed criteria include standards and treatment for various loan types similar to the criteria issued by Fitch Ratings the week before. (See the March 17, 2014, issue of Inside the CFPB for details). Moody’s indicated it will devote extra scrutiny to lenders that have a significant use of “bona fide discount points” to bring points and fees on a mortgage into compliance with QM requirements. The points and fees on a QM cannot exceed 3.0 percent of the loan amount.
The CFPB and five other federal financial regulators issued a proposed rule last week that would implement minimum requirements for state registration and supervision of appraisal management companies. The minimum requirements would apply to states that voluntarily elect to establish an appraiser certifying and licensing agency with the authority to register and supervise AMCs. Under the proposed rule, participating states would require that an AMC register in the state and be subject to its supervision, and use only state-certified or licensed appraisers for federally related transactions, such as real estate-related financial transactions overseen by a federal financial institution regulatory agency that require appraiser services.
The CFPB’s emphasis on behavioral law and economics – and politically preferable outcomes –produces inefficient, heavy-handed regulations that are inconsistent with the intent and purpose of improving consumer choices, according to a white paper by a pair of university economists. “In part, the CFPB has justified its ongoing intervention into financial credit markets based on a prior belief in the inability of consumers to competently weigh their decisions,” said Adam Smith, assistant professor of economics at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC, and Todd Zywicki, a senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.
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