The CFPB’s ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule hit the mortgage market at a difficult time and is compounding problems many homebuyers are having accessing credit, and the industry hope now is that the bureau will take the critical market dynamics into consideration as it undertakes its review of the ATR rule and revises it accordingly. That was one of the key takeaways from a breakout session at the American Bankers Association’s annual regulatory compliance conference last month in Orlando.“We understand why the rule came into existence, obviously. But what it did is typical when the pendulum goes too far in one direction, then things go too far the other way,” said Richard Andreano, a partner in the mortgage banking unit at ...
The CFPB’s Equal Credit Opportunity Act Valuations Rule may not be much in the spotlight these days, but there are still some key compliance issues that test lenders. The rule updated ECOA’s Regulation B, requiring lenders to provide applicants for first-lien loans on a dwelling with copies of appraisals, as well as other written valuations, developed in connection with the application, whether or not the applicants request copies. One of the challenges of the rule involves timing, according to Elizabeth Fredrickson, a vice president at Wells Fargo Bank. “There’s a concern about the waiver provisions and the timing and having to get those really, essentially, more up front, than within the [required] timeframe,” she said during a panel discussion at ...
Might New Residential Get Sucked into Ocwen’s Struggle with CFPB? In a recent interview with IMFnews, an affiliated publication, New Residential Investment Corp. CEO Michael Nierenberg said the company’s servicing-related deal with Ocwen Financial is coming along and will be completed in the “near future,” though he declined to be specific.... Lawmakers Seeks to Exempt More Lenders From CFPB Exam Oversight. Last week, one member of the U.S. Senate and another from the House of Representative each separately introduced legislation that would increase from $10 billion to $50 billion the threshold figure at which regulated depository institutions are subject to direct examination and reporting requirements of the CFPB....
An effort by a handful of state attorneys general to intervene in an enforcement action brought by the CFPB against Sprint Corp. back in 2014 and lay claim to the unspent settlement funds will likely come to naught, after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York blocked the effort. In its enforcement action, brought in December 2014, the CFPB accused Sprint of billing wireless customers tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges from 2004 to 2013. The issue here involved charges for what are known as “premium text messages” or “premium short messaging services” because they are frequently delivered by text messages. Examples of such products and services include ringtones, wallpaper images, and text ...
There has not been a lot of recent enforcement activity from the CFPB in terms of its loan originator compensation rule, but industry participants shouldn’t get complacent, according to some top compliance professionals. “We’ve seen the bureau say a couple different times that this is going to be a priority, and they’ve put out a few bulletins on this rule. But we’ve seen very little enforcement activity in this space,” said Maria Earley, a partner with the Reed Smith law firm in Washington, DC, during a panel discussion at the American Bankers Association’s 2017 regulatory compliance conference, held last month in Orlando.That being said, compliance professionals must not let their guard down. “Document everything. Step through with the regulators ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s recommendation that it gain authority to oversee nonbanks didn’t go over too well with some in the mortgage industry. The GSE regulator argued that oversight of nonbank mortgage servicers only happens via contractual provisions when possible. In the FHFA’s Annual Report to Congress, it said other federal safety and soundness regulators are allowed statutory authority to examine companies that provide services to depository institutions. David Stevens, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s president and CEO, questions the purpose of the FHFA recommendation and said it would only lead to more unnecessary regulation.
Joint Trade Letter Requests Comment Extension on Language Access. Eight trade groups, including the American Bankers Association and Mortgage Bankers Association, wrote the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week asking for a 45-day extension to comment on FHFA’s Request for Input on Improving Language Access in Mortgage Lending and Servicing. “The RFI reflects the breadth and difficulties of this issue, as it asks for extensive information,” the groups said, adding that the deadline also coincides with other RFIs. Fannie Announces Two CIRTs on $19.8 Billion of Single-Family Loans. Fannie Mae announced this week that it has completed the second set of traditional Credit Insurance Risk Transfer transactions of...
California remained the top state for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac activity in the first three months of 2017 as volume reached $42.92 billion, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. And that’s higher than the $36.18 billion in volume the Golden State had in the first quarter of 2016. Texas trailed in second place with $14.22 billion in volume, up from the $12.43 billion in volume a year earlier. Rounding out the top five for GSE volume were Florida ($12.14 billion), Colorado ($8.62 billion) and New York, ($8.32 billion.) Also in California, the average Fannie and Freddie loan was $311,992 in the first quarter, an increase from the average loan size of $307,302 in the first quarter of 2016.
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