The new cop on the financial services beat is strongly encouraging lenders and other financial services providers to make sure they have a robust compliance management system in place to closely monitor their fair lending activities in light of the letter and spirit of various consumer protection laws. Anna-Marie Tabor, the acting head of the CFPB’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, told participants in a recent fair lending webinar sponsored by the Federal Reserve that an adequate compliance...

Lender and financial services industry representatives, commenting on the CFPB’s recently released five-year strategic plan, called for clear, comprehensive guidance to the industry along with enough time to ensure full compliance, given the sheer volume of all the other rulemakings being promulgated in the wake of the financial crisis. The American Financial Services Association, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Bankers Association said they were pleased that the first goal in the strategic plan is to prevent...

A report recently issued by CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra likens complaints in the massive student loan sector to complaints related to problems in mortgage servicing. “The complaints and input received by the bureau resemble many of the same issues experienced by mortgage borrowers, such as improper application of payments, untimeliness in error resolution, and inability to contact appropriate personnel in times of hardship,” the report stated.

Last week, the CFPB released a report entitled, “The Next Front? Student Loan Servicing and the Cost to Our Men and Women in Uniform,” outlining the unique servicing obstacles reported by U.S. military service members seeking to pay off student loan debt. “Since I began this job almost two years ago, I’ve visited over 40 different military installations – talking to senior leaders, military service providers and thousands of service members and spouses,” said Holly Petraeus, head of the bureau’s Office...

The CFPB announced last week that it is now accepting consumer complaints about credit reporting agencies, another indication that the bureau is aggressively expanding its efforts to protect consumers throughout the financial services sector. “Credit reporting touches the financial lives of nearly each and every American,” said Scott Pluta, head of the bureau’s Office of Consumer Response. “Credit reports affect whether or not you are able to get a credit card, a home loan, an auto loan, or a student loan...

Last week, the CFPB issued its final rule for overseeing debt collectors – which will allow the agency to supervise the larger consumer debt collectors – and included attorneys among those who are going to be subject to direct federal supervision for the first time. That leaves some observers wondering if enforcement actions will be next. Also, with this expansion of the supervision program to oversee nonbanks that are larger participants in the consumer debt collection market, the bureau is now going to be able to...

The CFPB recently put out its small business compliance guide for the bureaufs international electronic money transfers rule (also known as the remittance rule), which will take effect Feb. 7, 2013. The publication summarizes the remittance rule, and includes information to assist a business in determining whether it will be subject to the rule, along with details on the rulefs requirements. The guide is not a substitute for the rule, but it highlights issues that businesses, in particular small businesses and those that...

Representatives of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the CFPB had a meeting late last month to discuss the bureau’s integrated mortgage disclosure rule proposal. The two government-sponsored enterprises told the CFPB they have learned a great deal about data standardization and the electronic capture of data in the course of the three years they have been working on the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, according to a document filed with the bureau. The GSEs “are interested in providing this...

More Talk Heard About Changing Dodd-Frank. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee member Mark Warner, D]VA, recently told the Bipartisan Policy Center that he has hope the 113th Congress will be able to put together a technical corrections bill to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. gCongress never gets it right, when youfre looking at massive reform legislation the first time through,h Warner said. gYou directionally head in an area and then you come back two years, three years...

Participants in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market expect the amount of MBS backed by newly originated non-agency mortgages to increase significantly in 2013 and beyond – even without reform of the government-sponsored enterprises. A number of factors have combined to make the market ripe for new non-agency MBS, according to attendees at the ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in Miami. “Borrowers want loans, lenders want to lend and investors want yield,” ... [Includes one data chart]