The CFPB last week dismissed its precedent-setting case against PHH Corp., officially overturning the bureau’s controversial interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under former Director Richard Cordray. In the end, the four-year legal battle over alleged RESPA violations regarding captive reinsurance arrangements ended up with no fine or penalty being assessed on the mortgage lender. The final court ruling that upheld the constitutionality ...

The CFPB and two payday-lending trade groups filed a joint motion seeking a stay of a lawsuit challenging the CFPB payday-lending rule, and to delay the compliance date set by the rule. The lawsuit at issue was filed by the Community Financial Services Association of America and Consumer Services Alliance of Texas in April in a Texas federal district court. The two groups alleged that the consumer agency’s payday-lending rule is unlawful because ...

Democratic lawmakers sent comment letters to the CFPB in response to its request for information regarding the bureau’s rulemaking processes, emphasizing the importance of data collection in making new rules. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, MA, and Mark Warner, VA, wrote in a comment letter to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney that data collection is essential to rulemaking at the CFPB. “The CFPB’s decision-making is at its best when it has data to guide the ...

With razor-thin production margins becoming the norm this year, some originators are thinking about, or moving ahead with plans to trim the compensation levels of their most valuable asset: loan officers.

The incidence of defects in mortgage loan applications has decreased significantly in the last five years, according to First American Financial’s Loan Application Defect Index.

A strong surge of purchase-mortgage business helped lift Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac production of single-family mortgage-backed securities in May, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Credit characteristics in May production were relatively unchanged, however. The two GSEs securitized $65.63 billion of single-family MBS last month, a 6.8 percent increase from April’s volume. Most of the gain came from a 23.6 percent jump in purchase-mortgage business as home buying season kicked into gear. Refinance volume was up slightly, and neither ... [Includes two data charts.]

Are mortgage lenders in the financial services business? The answer from the Internal Revenue Service on that question will determine whether lenders organized as pass-through entities can take a significant deduction included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Originations of purchase mortgages are expected to increase this year even though interest rates and home prices continue to rise. “The underlying demand for buying a home is holding up, and will continue to do so, as long as the economy is generating solid job and income growth,” said Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac.

Industry insiders are continuing to play the speculation game regarding who might replace Mel Watt as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a position that holds immense power given the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in the housing market. So far, analysts and lobbyists have identified a handful of potential candidates who might replace the director when his five-year term ends early next year, including Treasury counselor Craig Phillips; Mark Calabria, chief economist to Vice President Mike Pence; and Michael Bright, EVP of Ginnie Mae, among others. Another candidate who has been mentioned is Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, who was sworn into that post in late November of last year.

There are benefits to merging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to one conservative think tank opining on the future of the GSEs.The American Action Forum said because the government-sponsored enterprises are being funded in part by taxpayers, and treated as being on the federal budget, the goal should be to align policy with the budget. “This raises an intriguing possibility. Merge Fannie and Freddie into the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin president of the AAF and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office in the early 2000’s.