The mortgage lending industry had a less-than-enthusiastic greeting for another rulemaking from the CFPB that goes on for hundreds of pages. The initial reaction from the American Bankers Association was muted. Frank Keating, president and CEO, said his organization is pleased that the bureau extended the compliance date and excluded the collection of data on most commercial transactions, something the ABA advocated. “However, we continue to be concerned about the privacy of bank customers’ data and ensuring that their information is properly protected. We look forward to commenting on these important issues,” he added. “The rule also imposes significantly expanded data reporting and collection requirements, so we remain concerned about the appropriate balancing of costs and benefits in order to ...

The CFPB recently issued much-sought but quite limited guidance to the mortgage industry on marketing services agreements, emphasizing the legal and regulatory risks for lenders. “We are deeply concerned about how marketing services agreements are undermining important consumer protections against kickbacks,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Companies do not seem to be recognizing the extent of the risks posed by implementing and monitoring these agreements within the bounds of the law.” The guidance, in the form of a five-page bulletin, explains that, while marketing services agreements are usually framed as payments for advertising or promotional services, “in some cases the payments are actually disguised compensation for referrals. Any agreement that entails exchanging a thing of value for referrals of settlement ...

A cross-section of industry representatives and analysts were not very impressed with the long-sought guidance on marketing services agreements that the CFPB put out recently. Michael Barone, a director of legal and regulatory compliance at Lenders Compliance Group, a consulting firm in Long Beach, NY, said the guidance – which he characterized as very short and informal – “was an effort to get something out very quickly,” in response to all the congressional criticism that CFPB Director Richard Cordray received at the hands of critics on Capitol Hill. “It really does not have a lot of teeth at all,” he said of the bulletin. Further, the guidance doesn’t “tell us anything more than where we were an hour before this guidance came ...

A number of industry trade groups said that CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s determination earlier this year that PHH Corp.’s former mortgage reinsurance activities violated the anti-kickback provision of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act was wrong and ill-founded on multiple levels. Jointly submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in PHH et al. vs. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the organizations argued that the director’s order cannot be reconciled with RESPA, the bureau’s governing regulations, or longstanding policy guidance. First, the directive contravenes the text, structure and purpose of RESPA Section 8(c)(2) by relegating it to “a mere rule of construction, rather than treating that provision as the exemption to liability that it ...

With a strong fourth quarter, jumbo MBS issuance in 2015 could nudge past the post-crisis high set back in 2013, when $13.12 billion of these deals came to market.

Meanwhile, two mid-sized lenders told Inside Mortgage Finance on Friday that they too are shuttering their Realtor-related MSAs.

But there is some good news: the new rule will ease reporting requirements for small banks and credit unions.

Servicing workers, in particular, feel like they have a target on their backs, thanks to outsourcing and other factors...

The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based consultancy that built its practice on Ginnie Mae work and issues tied to the government-sponsored enterprises, has received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to open a broker/dealer unit. The new division is called Collingwood Capital Advisors and will be headed by Mark DeGennaro, who joined TCG as a managing director in February 2011 to head what was then a new effort to build the consultancy’s hedge fund/private equity group. Although Collingwood Capital is now a registered broker/dealer, it will not be involved...

A new loan origination defects and remedies framework to reduce buybacks was released by the government-sponsored enterprises last week, and lenders who spoke with Inside MBS & ABS said it may not be groundbreaking, but it is a step in the right direction. Jeremy Potter, general counsel and chief compliance officer with Norcom Mortgage, said, “We were really happy with the outcome. It seems like the industry has been working with them and this is a good team effort.” He said...