Industry representatives were pleased with the news that the Republican-controlled Congress and the Trump administration were able to cooperate and overturn the CFPB’s controversial rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses in most consumer financial services contracts. According to Consumer Bankers Association President and CEO Richard Hunt, “The CFPB’s rule was never about protecting consumers; rather, it was about protecting trial lawyers and their wallets,” he said. “The CFPB’s own study backs that up and proves trial lawyers would have been the real winners had this rule gone into effect.”Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, characterized the vote as a win for consumers. “As we and others made clear in our multiple comments to the CFPB, the ...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, surprised some in the nation’s capital last week by announcing he would not seek re-election when his term expires in 2018. Hensarling was already slated to surrender his chairmanship of the committee due to term limits, but he certainly had enough seniority to lay claim to another powerful position within the GOP leadership in the House. Instead, he opted to depart elected office entirely, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. The news immediately prompted speculation inside the Washington, DC, beltway about Hensarling’s next destination: at the helm of the Federal Housing Financial Agency or perhaps the CFPB? Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with the Cowen Washington Research Group, ...

Nearly two dozen mortgage industry groups wrote to members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently, urging them to support a bipartisan measure that would tweak the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule to enable title insurers to disclose available discounts and accurate title insurance premiums to homebuyers. Currently, the bureau does not permit title insurance companies to disclose available discounts for lender’s title insurance on the government mandated disclosure forms. “This creates inconsistencies in mortgage documents and causes confusion for consumers,” said the industry organizations...H.R. 3978, the TRID Improvement Act of 2017, introduced last month by Reps. French Hill, R-AK, and Ruben Kihuen, D-NV, would end this confusion by amending the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to require the CFPB ...

Multiple industry trade groups recently wrote to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to enact legislation that would loosen up the points-and-fees cap under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule and its qualified mortgage standard. At issue is the bipartisan H.R. 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act (not to be confused with the far more comprehensive, and controversial, Financial CHOICE Act). H.R. 1153 was introduced in February by Reps. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, Ed Royce, R-CA, Steve Stivers, R-OH, and David Joyce, R-OH, along with Gregory Meeks, D-NY, David Scott, D-GA, and Mike Doyle, D-PA. H.R. 1153 would revise the Truth in Lending Act Section 103(bb)(4) definition of points and fees to foster greater consumer choice in mortgage and settlement services under ...

Although it’s still unclear when the Treasury Department will release its blueprint for resolving the epic conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reforming the housing-finance system, industry officials are sifting through the Trump administration’s tea leaves. One source who claims to be familiar with Treasury’s thinking on the matter said a consensus is developing around a model where the government-sponsored enterprises re-emerge as “utilities” with little or ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earnings remained strong in the third quarter as the GSEs posted a combined $7.7 billion in net income. Fannie reported $3.02 billion, a 5.5 percent decline from the prior quarter. Freddie posted $4.67 billion, more than double the $1.66 billion reported in the second quarter. While the combined number is well above the $4.86 billion total booked in the previous quarter, the bulk of it is attributed to a legal settlement windfall with the Royal Bank of Scotland over non-agency mortgage-backed securities sold to the GSEs. Freddie received the lion’s share of the taxable settlement with $4.5 billion and Fannie received $975 million.

In round two of a House Financial Services subcommittee on Housing and Insurance hearing this week, housing finance reform talks shifted from small lender access to getting the GSEs out of conservatorship. During his testimony, Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens called the extended conservatorship, which is fast approaching a decade, economically and politically unsustainable. “The time to act on comprehensive legislative reform is now,” he said. While Stevens acknowledged that the Federal Housing Finance Agency has taken positive steps as conservator, he reiterated his view that only Congress can provide the “legitimacy and public confidence needed for long-term stability in both the primary and secondary markets.”

Mark Calabria, chief economist to Vice President Mike Pence, said the administration is in the early stages of looking at ways to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also explained why he’s not a fan of the qualified mortgage “patch” during comments this week at a housing finance discussion hosted by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic. He said the Trump administration is committed to not handing Fannie and Freddie over in conservatorship to the next administration and that finding a path forward is just the beginning. “We will do a number of listening sessions to ask questions about what is the best way out of...

The Mortgage Bankers Association is worried about blurred lines between primary and secondary market activities when it comes to Federal Housing Finance Agency objectives, especially in the wake of new technologies. The trade group said there should be a clear separation of the two market activities. In response to the FHFA’s strategic plan for 2018 through 2022, the MBA said it will be important for the agency to make sure the GSEs only undertake activities that support secondary market liquidity, and not displace lenders and vendors operating in the primary single-family and multifamily finance markets.

Work on housing-finance reform looks likely to ramp up in the coming weeks and months, including a document from the Trump administration and legislation in the Senate. But many policy analysts believe that passage of comprehensive legislation is still years away, giving great power to the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The Treasury Department will likely release principles on housing-finance reform within weeks, according to David Stevens ...