Proposed changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it relates to community-based banking institutions could put borrowers in rural communities at a disadvantage, according to a new report by the Center for Responsible Lending.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said the recent uptick in the purchase of adjustable rate mortgages by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, especially since November 2016, bears watching as a potential emerging risk.

Panelists at an Urban Institute event this week concluded that there can’t be a housing finance reform discussion without including the FHA. Carol Galante, former FHA commissioner during the Obama administration, said it’s important to make sure changes to the government-sponsored enterprises don’t unintentionally impact the FHA.

The top five sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted a combined 14.1 percent increase in volume from the third to the fourth quarter, boosting their share of the market to 38.4 percent.

CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has less than 200 calendar days left to occupy the director’s chair, so industry officials have been wondering what they can expect from the bureau as long as he’s in charge.According to some top compliance attorneys, the CFPB will be far less aggressive towards the industry, but hardly provide the corporate love-fest opponents of the AD fear. Laurence Platt, a partner with the Mayer Brown law firm in Washington, DC, told Inside the CFPB, “Like former Sen. George Romney’s famous prediction about the U.S. getting out of Vietnam, I expect a ‘phased withdrawal.’” The CFPB “will continue to supervise ‘covered persons,’ but, whether it is supervision or enforcement, I expect the CFPB’s use of ...

It’s possible that mortgage lenders and servicers will see the CFPB during the tenure of Acting Director Mick Mulvaney use the five-year “look back” the bureau is required to perform to make significant changes to a pair of major rulemakings: the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosure rule (TRID) and the ability-to-repay rule. Donald Lampe, a partner with Morrison & Foerster law firm in Washington, DC, explained, “In Dodd-Frank, there’s a five-year required regulatory review, and there are two of those regulatory reviews that are still under advisement: one for TRID and the other for the ATR/qualified mortgage rule. “If I’m thinking about 2018, I feel pretty confident to say that those processes bear careful attention ...

While most of the universe of CFPB watchers were focusing on the legal struggle between Acting Director Mick Mulvaney and Deputy Director Leandra English or the possibility that President Trump might name another fierce critic of the CFPB, such as Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, to head up the agency, it looks like a stealth candidate has entered the game. National Credit Union Administration Chairman Mark McWatters is that person. McWatters’ name has suddenly been floated by various industry observers and insiders as being on the short list of possible nominees for the consumer bureau. Nominated by President Obama to both the NCUA board and then to head the Export-Import Bank (the latter nomination being blocked by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL) ...

As 2017 came to an end, the CFPB and other federal prudential regulators informed the industry they would implement a “good faith efforts” enforcement philosophy toward lender compliance with the new requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that took effect Jan. 1. The CFPB in 2015 put out its rule under which financial institutions were required to collect and report new mortgage data points for loans made after Jan. 1, 2018. This past August, the bureau released a final rule that clarified some reporting requirements, increased the threshold for collecting and reporting data on home equity lines of credit for two years, and made various technical corrections. “The bureau recognizes the significant systems and operational challenges needed to meet ...

Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia circuit heard oral arguments Dec. 22 in the dispute between CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English and the Trump administration over the appointment of Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the bureau. However, he has yet to issue any ruling and did not indicate when one could be expected. Attorney Theodore Flo, an associate with the Ballard Spahr law firm in Washington, DC, who attended the oral arguments, noted in a blog post, “Based on the judge’s denial of English’s request for a temporary restraining order and his questions and observations at the hearing, it seems likely that he will deny her preliminary injunction motion as well. English ...

Regardless of the outcome of the struggle for control over the CFPB in the wake of former Director Richard Cordray’s departure, lenders are being conservatively advised to maintain compliance practices that can withstand the ebb and flow of political appointees, according to one top compliance attorney.“While the Trump administration is pushing for deregulation and removing the independence of the CFPB, if it is successful, it may be risky and costly for the financial industry to abandon all of the concepts of fairness to consumers that have been embodied in the CFPB’s actions,” Maria Macoubrie, of counsel in the Kansas City, MO, office of the Stinson Leonard Street law firm, said in a recent online blog. She conceded that less ...