Legislation that would define loans held in portfolio by smaller banks as qualified mortgages garnered unanimous support at a markup in the House Financial Services Committee last week. H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, was approved on a 55-0 vote. The bill has been kicking around in Congress for years and was modified at the markup to help win support in the Senate. Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, introduced the legislation. He said it will “expand access to ...

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week continued to work on housing-finance reform legislation, with the hope that a bipartisan bill can still be cobbled together in a dysfunctional Congress. As for passage this year, that’s a different matter.

The Treasury Department appears to be in agreement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on objectives for a post-conservatorship housing-finance system, which includes preserving the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and competition in the secondary market.

A deduction included in the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act aimed at small businesses could apply to mortgage banking companies, according to certain industry analysts. The tax law was written to limit the deduction for income from financial services activities, but there’s enough ambiguity at the moment for some accounting firms to see a way for lenders to take the deduction.

While the House Financial Services Committee was busy last week passing a handful of mortgage-related bills, the full House passed legislation that would eliminate additional Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements for smaller banks and credit unions as well as nonbanks.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Land Title Association have joined forces to produce a model piece of legislation to help standardize the process of online notarizations.

The House Financial Services Committee last week advanced a number of bills for a vote by the full House, including legislation that would expand the qualified mortgage box for smaller entities and exempt many institutions from the rules and regulations issued by the CFPB. One of the bills passed was H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, introduced by Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY. The measure would amend the Truth in Lending Act to allow certain mortgage loans that are originated and retained in portfolio by an insured depository institution or an insured credit union with less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets to be considered as qualified mortgages. Then there was H.R. 1264, the Community Financial Institution ...

Some top compliance attorneys are optimistic that the CFPB under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, or another President Trump appointee, will provide greater regulatory relief and clarity for lenders, and an easing of enforcement activity. Included in that mix could well be a return to the more traditional interpretation the Department of Housing and Urban Development had for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Gerald Sachs, formerly senior counsel for policy and strategy at the bureau and now a partner with the Venable law firm in Washington, DC, told Inside the CFPB recently he anticipates that “mortgage rules would be amended or revised to lessen the regulatory burden, clarify industry concerns or issues, and allow more access to credit.” In addition, ...

After years of being mum on what he thinks a reformed secondary mortgage market should look like, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt revealed FHFA’s goals for a post-conservatorship housing-finance system. Prompted by what Watt called “the growing perception that reform could be achievable this year,” he wrote to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on Jan. 16 outlining FHFA’s views on reform, which include an explicit government guarantee for mortgage-backed securities comprised of conventional home loans. According to the document, a copy of which was provided to Inside The GSEs, Watt and his staff reiterated that an ongoing conservatorship is not sustainable.

Craig Phillips, counselor to the secretary at the U.S. Department of Treasury, advocated for a legislative solution to the ongoing conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He said the decision to allow the GSEs to retain a small capital buffer was a litmus test on housing reform. Although he said Treasury didn’t feel that Fannie and Freddie have an immediate capital problem because they have lines of credit, Phillips said there was somewhat of an “optical issue,” which led to the Treasury’s decision to allow the GSEs to retain up to $3 billion in capital in December. Speaking at a Women in Housing and Finance public policy luncheon in Washington, he said, “We think that decreases tension over this point. There was...