As press time, details were sketchy, but lobbyists who claim to have knowledge of the draft caution there are several “different pieces” to the measure...
It’s unlikely the mortgage lending and servicing industry will see any big changes at the CFPB right away – at least in terms of new regulations and rule-makings – once Richard Cordray formally exits the stage as director of the bureau, most experts said. “Until the president installs a new director, it should be business as usual,” former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner with Buckley Sandler in Washington, DC, told Inside the CFPB. As excited as some mortgage industry representatives were upon hearing the news, all of the bureau’s rulemakings related to mortgage lending and servicing have already been issued and finalized, so that’s all water under the bridge. A new director will not be able to willy-nilly revoke or ...
Trade groups representing mortgage lenders and servicers generally support the change the bureau is making to its 2013 mortgage servicing rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X) and the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) as it relates to certain early-intervention notices. In mid-October, the CFPB issued an interim final rule amending the timing requirements for providing subsequent written early-intervention notices to borrowers who have requested a cease in communication under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The CFPB’s 2016 amendments to the 2013 mortgage servicing rules generally require that servicers send notices to delinquent borrowers every 45 days to inform them of available foreclosure prevention options. For borrowers who have invoked their cease-communication requirements, servicers must ...
Back in October, the CFPB issued a proposed rule to clarify the timing for mortgage servicers to transition to providing modified or unmodified periodic statements and coupon books in connection with a consumer’s bankruptcy case. Since its 2016 mortgage servicing rule was adopted, the bureau said it has received significant input that certain aspects of the single-billing-cycle exemption and timing requirements may be more complex and operationally challenging than it realized, and that the relevant provisions may be subject to different interpretations. Therefore, the CFPB proposed several revisions to replace the single-billing-cycle exemption with a single-statement exemption. More specifically, the bureau proposed to revise the single-billing-cycle exemption to instead provide a single-statement exemption for the next periodic statement or coupon ...
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee approved several bills that would override the CFPB on some of its key mortgage-related rulemakings. The voting included the passage of H.R. 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act of 2017, which would exclude from the ability-to-repay calculation of points and fees insurance and taxes held in escrow and fees paid to affiliated companies as a result of their participation in an affiliated business arrangement. The bill passed by a recorded vote of 46 ayes and 13 nays. Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Cowen Washington Research Group, said in a client note, “This would permit lenders to work with affiliate title insurers without worrying about the points-and-fees cap.” Another measure that survived the legislative gauntlet ...
Last week, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee endorsed a handful of legislative provisions related to mortgage financing, including a measure that tackles one aspect of the CFPB’s integrated-disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.One section of the still-to-be-named bill would remove the three-day waiting period required for the combined TILA/RESPA mortgage disclosure if a creditor extends to a consumer a second offer of credit with a lower annual percentage rate. It also would express the sense of Congress that the CFPB should provide clearer, authoritative guidance with respect to certain issues. A separate section deals with escrow requirements for certain consumer credit transactions. These provisions would provide an ...