The CFPB recently announced it plans to hold a field hearing on debt collection in Seattle on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Since Director Richard Cordray is scheduled to deliver remarks at the event, there is “considerable speculation” that release of the bureau’s final larger participant rule for the debt collection market is imminent and could be announced by Cordray at the hearing, according to Alan Kaplinsky, a Ballard Spahr practice leader. “It is expected that the release of the final debt collection rule will quickly be followed by the release of the CFPB’s debt collection examination...

Earlier this month, a company named Digital Firefly Marketing, a provider of online marketing services, announced that it had been hired by the bureau to “support the online recruitment efforts for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” What’s significant about the announcement is that the company said it was chosen to help the bureau “ramp up” its hiring. To attract qualified candidates to CFPB employment opportunities, Digital Firefly will lead a “high profile” marketing campaign utilizing LinkedIn’s networking tools. To further market the bureau, Digital Firefly will place advertisements...

A recently revised work plan from the Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General indicates it has additional audits of the bureau in its pipeline with 2013 projected completion dates. The OIG has begun an evaluation of the CFPB’s policies, procedures and practices associated with agency-sponsored conferences, the report states. The objectives of this evaluation include determining the bureau’s management controls, policies, procedures, and practices associated with agency-sponsored conferences. The OIG also intends to determine whether the CFPB’s conference-related expenses and...

The bureau recently put out a safe]harbor list of countries that qualify for an exception to one of the requirements of the bureaufs remittance rule, which was published in February. The remittance rule generally requires remittance transfer providers to give specified disclosures to consumers sending remittance transfers. Among other requirements, a provider generally must disclose to a sender the total amount the recipient will receive, as well as the applicable exchange rate, fees and taxes. In certain circumstances, the rule permits providers to estimate these amounts...

The CFPB has made another call for public input on its Request for Information on Effective Financial Education initiative, which was first published in the Aug. 2, 2012, issue of the Federal Register.Specifically, the bureau’s Office of Financial Education “seeks public comment on effective financial education approaches that create opportunities for consumers to improve their financial decision-making capabilities,” the notice stated. The request “reflects the CFPB’s acceptance of a behavioral economics approach,” according to Barbara Mishkin, of counsel...

GOP Candidate Opines on the Qualified Mortgage. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney briefly delved into one of the mortgage industry’s hottest issues during the first debate he had with President Obama, citing the CFPB’s pending ability-to-repay rule, asserting that banks have become reluctant to originate new mortgage loans because of delays and uncertainty surrounding the qualified mortgage definition. “You say we were giving mortgages to people who weren’t qualified. That’s exactly right. That’s one of the big reason for the great financial calamity we had,”...

Unanticipated complications with the Dodd-Frank Act appear to have caused Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to miss a Sept. 30 deadline set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to initiate risk-sharing transactions with non-agency investors. However, FHFA officials said they continue to work with the government-sponsored enterprises on the issue. “Risk sharing is a complex process that requires time to assess market opportunities, structural considerations, make operational changes, and develop proper risk metrics and controls,” an FHFA spokesman said. “We are moving forward steadily and expect to continue making progress in the coming months.” FHFA officials would not comment...

New issuance of single-family MBS by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae jumped by 16.9 percent from the second quarter of 2012 to the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. The three agencies issued a total of $436.0 billion of single-family MBS during the third quarter, raising year-to-date issuance to $1.194 trillion. That was up 45.6 percent from the first nine months of 2011. Over half (50.3 percent) of the agency production in 2012 has come...[Includes one data chart]

Certain aspects of the securitization process can and should be standardized to serve a “utility function” for the secondary mortgage market under a new proposed securitization platform drafted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Last week, the FHFA released a white paper detailing its proposed framework for a common securitization platform and model pooling and servicing agreement for review and public comment. The FHFA is working...

Some of the major players in what is likely to develop as the real estate owned rental securitization market are still unsure about how exactly the market will develop. However, investor interest in the REO rental sector is strong, even if securitizations will not receive AAA ratings. At a seminar this week hosted by the American Securitization Forum, Suzanne Mistretta, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, confirmed that the rating service will not give initial REO rental securitizations anything higher than a single-A rating. Fitch and others have been approached...