As the CFPB prepares to move forward with a new strategic plan – which may well be revised, now that Mick Mulvaney is in charge – the mortgage industry again called on the bureau to move beyond “regulation by enforcement.” Instead, it should provide more of the detailed guidance lenders and servicers and other participants need to fully comply with the agency’s rules and regulations and best serve consumers, top industry representatives said. In a recent comment letter to the bureau, the Mortgage Bankers Association noted that the CFPB is at an inflection point in 2017. Now it can “pivot and focus its resources on providing supervision and binding, authoritative guidance that helps responsible parties, including those in the mortgage industry, comply ...

The CFPB and VA recently issued their first WARNO, or “warning order,” to members of the U.S. armed forces and veterans with VA home loans, urging them to stay on their toes and avoid deceptive mortgage refinance offers. “If you have a VA home loan, then there is a good chance that you have already come into contact with unsolicited offers to refinance your mortgage that appear official and may sound too good to be true,” the two agencies said. Many of these solicitations promise extremely low interest rates, thousands of dollars in cash back, the ability to skip mortgage payments, and no out-of-pocket costs or waiting period. “Don’t be fooled,” the CFPB and VA said. “Before responding to any ...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, wrote to Don McGahn, White House counsel, and CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, in his capacity as director of the Office of Management and Budget, last week for answers to questions she has about Mulvaney and other OMB personnel simultaneously serving at the consumer bureau. First, she wanted to know what staff from OMB or elsewhere in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) have accompanied Mulvaney to the CFPB. She requested a complete list of all such staff, their title at OMB or in the EOP, and their title at the CFPB. Warren also sought the authority under which these individuals are working at CFPB. “Have these individuals been appointed to CFPB, or detailed to ...

Republican Senators Threaten to Undo any CFPB Rules Issued Under an English Regime. Last week, nine senators said they would work to invalidate any new rules promulgated by the bureau if Leandra English prevails in her attempts to unseat and replace the bureau’s acting director, Mick Mulvaney.... Mulvaney Taps Hensarling Aide. Is the Congressman Next? CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has named House Financial Services Committee Senior Counsel Brian Johnson to serve him as a senior adviser, late-breaking press reports indicated. ...

The new boss at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – Mick Mulvaney – wasted no time this week in beginning to steer a new course for the controversial agency.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray last week informed bureau staff that he is resigning. He made no mention of his future plans, but it has been widely expected for months, if not years, that he would run for governor of Ohio. Cordray is the first officially named and confirmed director of the bureau, but he encountered controversy from the start, as President Obama tried to make him a recess appointment, which was later declared to be an unconstitutional move on Obama’s part. However, the Democrat-controlled Senate at the time reaffirmed the president’s selection of Cordray, rendering various legal challenges moot. He was preceded at the helm by Raj Date, who served as a special advisor after being chosen by then-Harvard professor ...

Upon last week’s news of CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s resignation, a number of industry representatives urged Congress and the White House to enact legislation to convert the leadership structure of the bureau to that of a multi-member, bipartisan board or commission. Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, said, “While we haven’t always agreed with Director Corday on issues, we have always shared his goal of wanting to help consumers and appreciated his willingness to engage with us. “Consumers are our customers, and nothing is more important to America’s banks than maintaining their trust and confidence,” he added. “We will continue to work with the CFPB under its new leadership to ensure consumers have access to the ...

It’s unlikely the mortgage lending and servicing industry will see any big changes at the CFPB right away – at least in terms of new regulations and rule-makings – once Richard Cordray formally exits the stage as director of the bureau, most experts said. “Until the president installs a new director, it should be business as usual,” former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner with Buckley Sandler in Washington, DC, told Inside the CFPB. As excited as some mortgage industry representatives were upon hearing the news, all of the bureau’s rulemakings related to mortgage lending and servicing have already been issued and finalized, so that’s all water under the bridge. A new director will not be able to willy-nilly revoke or ...

Major news outlets have reported that President Trump intends to choose current Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the CFPB upon Richard Cordray’s departure as chief of the consumer bureau. Attorneys with the Buckley Sandler law firm in Washington, DC, said in an online blog post that Mulvaney, a former Republican member of the House from South Carolina, would keep his current position and serve as both the director of OMB and acting director until the president nominates and the Senate confirms a permanent replacement for Cordray. Mulvaney, a long-time critic of the bureau, would be able to step into the acting director position since he has already passed muster with the Senate. As ...

The CFPB recently told a U.S. District Court it opposes Ocwen Financial’s motion to submit the Department of Justice’s brief filed in another case in lieu of the department’s inaction when it comes to weighing in on Ocwen’s dispute with the bureau. Ocwen recently asked the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, for permission to file a supplemental memorandum (an earlier brief by the DOJ in PHH Corp. v. CFPB as to the unconstitutionality of the bureau) in defense of the company’s motion to dismiss the consumer regulator’s case against it. The common thread in both cases is that Ocwen and PHH similarly assert that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional. During the Obama administration, the ...