The CFPB and the Department of Justice Thursday brought a $33.75 million redlining enforcement action against Hudson City Savings Bank, accusing the institution of denying residents in majority black and Hispanic neighborhoods fair access to mortgage credit. The joint action alleges that Hudson City illegally avoided and thereby discouraged consumers in majority black and Hispanic neighborhoods from applying for credit by avoiding locating branches and loan officers in such communities and by not using mortgage brokers in such neighborhoods as well. The government also accuses the bank of excluding majority black and Hispanic communities from its marketing strategy and from credit assessment areas. Under the terms of a proposed consent order pending before a court, Hudson City would have to ...

The CFPB recently issued some final changes to its mortgage rules to help foster responsible lending by small creditors, especially those operating in rural and underserved areas. The new rule, which was proposed in January, aims to increase the number of community banks and credit unions that are able to offer certain types of mortgages in rural and underserved areas. It also gives small creditors time to adjust their business practices to comply with the rules. “The financial crisis was not caused by community banks and credit unions, and our mortgage rules reflect the fact that small institutions play a vital role in many communities,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “These changes will help consumers in rural or underserved areas ...

Industry Anxiety at a Fever Pitch? Or Just Good Public Relations? The new TRID rule, which became active on Saturday, may only be the tip of the regulatory iceberg, according to sister publication IMFnews. Several lenders interviewed readily admitted that the new TILA/RESPA disclosures are definitely easier to understand. That’s the good news. “The bad news is that they feel the CFPB continues to miss their central message: that incorporating technology changes to their systems to make TRID happen on time has been an operational nightmare, and they feel that Director Richard Cordray has been hardly sympathetic to their plight,” the publication reported late last week. Although the TRID headache may be eased (for now) thanks to a letter that ...

Was Industry “Foaming at Mouth” Over ATR Liability Much Ado About Nothing? “All this foaming at the mouth about legal liability [on qualified mortgage standards] did not pan out. It was an over-reaction,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said last week. During a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee, the director noted that he recently met with the CEOs of the top 40 mortgage companies as part of an event hosted by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Cordray said the CEOs revealed that none of these lenders have faced lawsuits alleging violations of standards for qualified mortgages. One industry veteran later said that Cordray took “the disingenuous position that since no lawsuits have been filed, all the concerns about legal ...

Consumer Complaints Tick Slightly Upward From Year-Ago Levels. A small 3.9 percent drop in overall consumer complaints to the CFPB during the third quarter helped keep a lid on rising complaints at the nine-month mark versus a year ago, according to an analysis by Inside the CFPB. (See chart on previous page.) The data show a modest 4.3 percent uptick in consumer criticisms at the end of September 2015 compared with the same nine-month period in 2014. The biggest drops were seen in the payday lending space (down 18.7 percent quarter to quarter and 7.1 percent year over year) and in the residential mortgage space (down 10.9 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively)....

On a year-to-date basis, total MBS and ABS issuance was up 37.7 percent from the first nine months of 2014.

Sources told IMFnews that one large loan origination system (LOS) vendor was struggling to make programming deadlines ahead of the TRID rule, a situation that had caught the attention of the CFPB.

One of the MI’s key products is lender-paid mortgage insurance, which has come under regulatory scrutiny.

One of the defendants, Intercontinental Capital Group, Bohemia, NY, has already settled and will pay $424,859.

New issuance of residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS fell slightly during the third quarter of 2015, but the market remained well ahead of the pace set last year. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis shows a total of $396.99 billion of MBS and ABS were issued during the third quarter, down 6.1 percent from the previous quarter. That total does not include commercial MBS or multifamily securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. On a year-to-date basis, total MBS and ABS issuance was...[Includes two data tables]