OIG Expects to Finish Nine Audits, Evaluations of the CFPB This Quarter. The CFPB’s Office of Inspector General has a batch of ongoing projects related to the bureau that it expects to complete sometime during the first quarter, according to the OIG’s latest work plan, released early this week.Among the projects are audits of the CFPB’s contract management process, its diversity and inclusion processes, and it headquarters renovation project. Other projects with a first quarter 2015 completion timeframe are audits of the CFPB’s public consumer complaint database, the bureau’s space-planning activities, and the CFPB’s Tableau system, an application used to develop, publish, and view business intelligence data. Also up for completion this quarter is an evaluation of the CFPB’s ...
The Federal Reserve’s opinion survey of senior loan officers has grown in scope to include some new mortgage categories, including qualified mortgage underwriting and non-QM underwriting. In brief, the Fed found that underwriting is easing slightly as demand slips modestly. “The January 2015 survey revised and expanded the residential mortgage loan categories to reflect the CFPB’s qualified mortgage rules and provide additional detail on important developments in the residential mortgage market both now and in the future,” the survey said. In particular, the survey included the following seven mutually exclusive categories of residential home-purchase mortgage loans: government-sponsored enterprise-eligible residential mortgages; government residential mortgages; QM non-jumbo, non-GSE-eligible residential mortgages; QM jumbo residential mortgages; non-QM jumbo residential mortgages; non-QM non-jumbo residential mortgages ...
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade, recently re-introduced the Mortgage Choice Act, the points-and-fees legislation, with some bipartisan support, which could help ease concern at a White House wary of Republican efforts to scale back the powers of the CFPB. The measure would exempt from the qualified mortgage 3 percent cap on points and fees any affiliated title charges and escrow charges for taxes and insurance. Huizenga’s bill also would exclude lender-paid compensation to a bank in a wholesale transaction from the 3 percent cap.“Hardworking families across the nation should not be denied access to a qualified mortgage because of technicalities that are largely out of their control,” said ...
The CFPB excited many in the mortgage industry with some noteworthy proposed changes to its ability-to-repay rule, particularly a broad exemption for portfolio loans held by small lenders. But it’s not chiseled in stone yet – the bureau wants industry and other public comment on a host of issues associated with the revisions it contemplates. For instance, the bureau wants all of the changes in its proposal to take effect on Jan. 1, 2016. The date would be consistent with the end of the calendar year determinations that have to be made regarding the special provisions and exemptions that apply to small creditors under the CFPB’s regulations, and would therefore facilitate compliance by creditors. “The bureau seeks comment on whether the ...
Some factions of the industry have expressed a concern about the “liquidity language” in the FHFA proposal, but that’s not a concern for Pingora's Lau.
Another manager noted that, “It’s been very intense recruiting in the markets that have shown the most growth: Texas, California, Florida and the DC [Washington] area.”
The FHA has updated the contents of a notice to delinquent borrowers regarding the availability of approved housing counseling and provided a new template for lenders to explain, in simple terms, the benefits of housing counseling. The latest guidance, Revised Notification to Homeowners of Availability of Housing Counseling Services (Mortgagee Letter 2015-04), also provides a description of counseling services to delinquent borrowers. The revised requirements supplement those outlined in previous mortgagee letters and certain provisions in the HUD handbook. Lenders must comply with the new requirements by April 4, 2015. FHA lenders must provide delinquent borrowers with a notice about the availability of housing counseling by an approved provider and the principal mortgage lender. However, there is no standard language for such notices Hence, the FHA has ...
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