The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1153, “The Mortgage Choice Act,” legislation that would make two adjustments to the Truth in Lending Act definition of points and fees regarding title fees charged by affiliates of the lender. The bill aims to make more loans eligible for qualified-mortgage status by excluding points and fees paid for affiliated title charges and escrow charges for insurance and taxes. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, explained ...

The Community Home Lenders Association and the Community Mortgage Lenders of America sent a joint letter to CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, asking for regulatory streamlining of smaller independent mortgage bankers (IMBs) through risk-based supervision, citing the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act. Specifically, their correspondence referenced a statutory requirement, Dodd-Frank subsection 1024(b)(2), under which the bureau is required to tailor its supervision of non-banks ...

Senior citizens filed significantly fewer complaints about their mortgage experiences in 2017, according to a new Inside the CFPB analysis of data compiled by the bureau. Seniors filed 2,966 mortgage complaints last year, down 44.6 percent from the 5,357 reported in 2016. Non-senior borrowers also submitted fewer mortgage complaints in 2017, but the decline was only 24.8 percent from the previous year. Most complaints from seniors over the past two years ... [Includes one data chart]

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the CFPB wrongly interpreted the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act will have a huge impact on the mortgage market and the regulatory landscape, industry attorneys said. In a closely-watched case involving PHH Mortgage and its captive mortgage reinsurance unit, the court upheld the notion that the plain language of RESPA permits a bona fide payment by one settlement service provider to another if ...

QM Portfolio Lending Legislation Would Cost CFPB $1 Million to Implement. Enacting H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, introduced last April by Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, would cost the CFPB $1 million, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. “Using information from the CFPB, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2226 would increase direct spending by $1 million in 2019 for the agency to issue rules to implement ... [Includes four briefs]

As predicted, per the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the GSEs’ fourth-quarter earnings took a big hit with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posting losses of $6.5 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. This is a far cry from their combined net income of $7.7 billion in the third quarter. But this likely one-time event was prompted by the GSEs having to reduce the value of their deferred tax assets by $15.3 billion after the tax act became law in December 2017. As a result, Fannie will need a $3.7 billion draw from Treasury and Freddie will have to request a $312 million draw.

This week, 127 mortgage banking executives attached their names to an open letter to members of Congress, urging federally elected politicians not to cede the work of housing-finance reform to the White House and the institutions it controls.The correspondence asks lawmakers to back draft legislation that creates a new “guarantor-based” system that builds on the current infrastructure created and maintained by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The executives, members of the Mortgage Bankers Association, favor improving the system by having “two or more” guarantors. The group believes a guarantor-based system – as opposed to an “issuer-based” system – is the best way to meet the nation’s housing-finance needs.

The draft of the housing-finance reform proposal from Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, appears to have morphed out of both the Mortgage Bankers Association plan and a proposal put forth by Michael Bright and Ed DeMarco. A recent analysis by the Structured Finance Industry Group compared the Senate discussion draft with the other two proposals. SFIG noted that all three proposals advocate an explicit mortgage-backed securities guarantee, preserving the to-be-announced market and the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. But when it comes to the cash window, the Senate draft deviates from the MBA and Bright/DeMarco plans, which suggested maintaining the cash window operations through the GSEs. Corker’s draft would maintain the cash window through the guarantors

Small lenders and affordable housing groups are not fans of the draft of housing-finance reform from Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN. Corker’s plan calls for having five or more guarantors to promote competition in the marketplace, but some worry about the big banks becoming the primary benefactors of this plan.With several private companies purchasing and securitizing mortgages, advocates of the 80-page draft said it would help end the duopoly of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The proposal includes winding down the GSEs to establish the new guarantors of which none would be able to control more than 20 to 25 percent of the market.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, sounded off on what may happen if Congress doesn’t act on housing- finance reform this year and implied that it doesn’t look good for affordable housing efforts. During a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week, the committee chair fired off a series of questions to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin asking for confirmation on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s powers. With FHFA Director Mel Watt’s term expiring in January 2019, Hensarling’s concern was that the Trump administration will name a replacement that could do away with some of the GSEs’ affordable housing initiatives.