A new report from the CFPB Office of Inspector General suggests the consumer bureau may have been in too much of a hurry to get more examiners into the field, compromising the quality of their training and their effectiveness. The CFPB’s Supervision Learning and Development (SL&D) unit has taken steps to enhance the Examiner Commissioning Program (ECP) since its implementation in October 2014, according to the report. However, there apparently were some pretty big holes left. For starters, the OIG found some examiners appeared to be pursuing parts of the examiner program before they were fully prepared, which limited their likelihood of success and affected employee morale. “Further, when examiners require multiple attempts to pass ECP components, they are not ...

The CFPB needs to improve the way it informs recipients of its civil investigative demands (CIDs) of the purpose of its investigations, according to a recent report from the bureau’s Office of Inspector General.At issue are the CFPB’s internal guidelines for crafting notifications of purpose associated with CIDs. The guidance calls for broad statements of purpose, to allow for flexibility, the OIG noted. However, “The guidance does not expressly remind enforcement attorneys of the need for statements of purpose to be compliant with relevant case law on notifications of purpose, including any developments in such case law, or remind them to revisit the statement of purpose in a revised opening memorandum if the purposes of the investigation evolve.” The ...

Consumer complaints to the CFPB about credit reports jumped in the third quarter, during which the massive Equifax data breach occurred, and year over year, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. Gripes to the bureau leapt by 53.4 percent from the second quarter to the third, our analysis found, and skyrocketed 86.2 percent from year-ago levels. Criticisms about credit reports went from 12,830 in the first quarter of 2017 to 19,685 in the second, to 29,466 in the third. And it may get worse before it gets better, as the bad news about the Equifax hack makes its way further into the general population.Equifax-related complaints rose 131.2 percent during the period ending ... [With exclusive data]

The agency single-family MBS market continued cranking along during the third quarter of 2017, but other sectors in structured finance saw weakening issuance, according to an exclusive new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Some $407.55 billion of MBS and ABS – excluding collateralized debt obligations and agency credit-risk transfer deals – were issued during the third quarter. That was off 4.9 percent from the previous three-month period and it ... [Includes three data charts]

Nomura Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland fought a long battle but eventually lost in a court appeal last week when the judge decided not to undo an earlier order forcing them to pay the government $839 million. The settlement was based on the banks not being truthful about non-agency MBS sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the housing meltdown. The firms’ lawyers chose to appeal the 2015 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote. She found the companies ...

The RNC document says the GOP “recognizes the sanctity of property rights in America,” which should warm the hearts of GSE common and junior preferred shareholders…

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a huge jump in deliveries of purchase-money mortgages during the third quarter, although the first-timer share of the market fell slightly. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $140.75 billion of purchase mortgages during the third quarter, an increase of 26.4 percent from the previous three-month period. Purchase loans accounted for 62.9 percent of loans sold into GSE mortgage-backed securities during ... [Includes two data charts]

Heavy purchase-mortgage business boosted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac production of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2017, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking.The two GSEs issued a total of $223.61 billion of MBS during the three-month period ending in September, a solid 17.9 percent gain from the previous quarter. It was the strongest quarter of 2017, but production during the first nine months of the year remained 6.4 percent below the same period in 2016. Most of the gain came from the seasonal purchase-mortgage side of the business. Fannie and Freddie securitized $140.75 billion of loans used to acquire a new home, a huge 26.4 percent increase from the second quarter.

There was a sense of urgency in FHFA Director Mel Watt’s comments to Congress this week about reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the year winds down and the GSEs’ capital buffer becomes non-existent in January 2018, the FHFA head voiced his frustration about the lack of action from Congress on addressing the nine-year conservatorship. “These conservatorships have been unprecedented in scope, complexity and duration, especially when you consider that the enterprises support over $5 trillion in mortgage loan guarantees,” he said testifying before the House Financial Services Committee. House lawmakers fired off questions to Watt on everything from flood insurance to the qualified-mortgage rule and credit-risk transfers during this week’s hearing.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said late last week that the FHFA is not doing a good job of monitoring the escalating costs associated with Fannie Mae’s new headquarters being constructed in downtown Washington, DC. This is the second time the agency watchdog has blasted the FHFA for not properly overseeing the build-out of the leased office space comprised of two office towers connected by multiple glass bridges. In a new audit, the IG questioned upgrades on the Class A office building that cost more than the typical $175 per rentable square foot.