The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued an interim rule last week that changed some of the components of its Freedom of Information Act regulation, including the fee categories. The interim rule gives notice about the circumstances in which the FHFA can extend its response time to the FOIA request and tells when it should notify the person requesting the information about their right to seek dispute resolution services. In the new FOIA rule, the agency is required to provide a minimum of 90 days for requestors to file an administrative appeal and must notify requesters about available dispute resolution services.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have a harder time recapitalizing if their deferred tax assets are negatively impacted by corporate tax reform, according to one GSE spectator. The Trump administration said it plans to restructure taxes before housing reform. Industry observers, like former Fannie Mae CFO Tim Howard, speculate on what impact that would have on Fannie and Freddie. Howard said that putting housing reform behind tax reform adds a “complication to the task of ultimately recapitalizing the companies, should that be what [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin chooses to do.” Mnuchin recently made public comments on network news stating that while housing reform is one of his priorities, it’s going to take more time.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, is looking to retain the CFPB, restructure key parts of the agency, and drastically limit its authority, Inside the CFPB has learned.According to a draft memorandum of the major changes to Hensarling’s Financial CHOICE Act, now dubbed CHOICE Act 2.0, the bureau “is to be retained and restructured as a civil law enforcement agency similar to the Federal Trade Commission, with additional restrictions on its authority,” as follows: Sole director, removable by the president at will. Rule-making authority limited to enumerated statutes. Unfair, deceptive acts or practices authority repealed in full. Supervision repealed. Consumer complaint database repealed.•Market monitoring authority repealed. Enforcement powers limited to cease-and-desist and civil investigative demand/subpoena powers....

President Trump has been in office nearly a month and CFPB Director Richard Cordray is still on the job, despite some early developments that suggested his days as head of the bureau are numbered under the new administration. The most recent headhunting expedition reportedly involved Brian Brooks, currently general counsel at Fannie Mae, who reportedly has close ties to Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, CNBC reported last week. Up on Capitol Hill, Republicans such as House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-NE, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, both recently called on Trump to sack Cordray. “The bureau’s mission to prohibit ‘abusive practices’ sounds great. But all that ...

It’s Monday and Richard Cordray is still the director of the CFPB, despite a whirlwind of sometimes conflicting news reports and rumors. Into last week, one continuing narrative (or trial balloon, perhaps) was that President Trump was on the verge of sacking Cordray “any day now.” But in the last few days, the latest line is that the Trump administration won’t fire Cordray until the Senate confirms Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, to be the next attorney general of the United States. The reason: the legal battle that would (presumably) ensue if he is fired will require a permanent AG to be in place and not just an acting top cop. Then again, the Trump administration seems to like to shoot ...

OCC Revises CRA Asset Thresholds for Small and Intermediate Small Banks and Savings Associations. Earlier this month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency revised the asset-size threshold amounts used to define “small bank,” “small savings association,” “intermediate small bank,” and “intermediate small savings association” under the Community Reinvestment Act. ... OCC Adjusts Civil Money Penalties for Inflation. Late last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced it was adjusting the maximum amount of each civil money penalty within its jurisdiction. ...

Is this the last week on the job for CFPB Director Richard Cordray? Speculation is suddenly growing fast and furiously that the director’s time is about over, that President-elect Trump will use his signature line from his Apprentice television show, “you’re fired” shortly after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017. What took this once-peripheral issue abruptly into overdrive are press reports that retired U.S. Congressman Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, met with the president elect at Trump Tower in New York City last week to discuss becoming the new head of the CFPB. Neugebauer, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee, reportedly has not been offered the job, as of press time, and ...

With the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States now just days away, anxiety among defenders of the CFPB that its director, Richard Cordray, may be booted is intensifying, prompting some of his more vocal supporters to make impassioned public pleas to defend him and preserve the agency he heads. Up on Capitol Hill, Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee urged the new president to “reject the Wall Street agenda” and not remove Cordray from his post. “Any attempts to remove Director Cordray from his position are without historical precedent, and intended solely to distract the director and the bureau from its important work protecting servicemembers, students and other borrowers from financial predation,” the ...

As the guard prepares to change in a week, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in an exit memo released last week that only legislation can comprehensively address “the ongoing shortcomings of the housing finance system.” In the memo, Lew documents the Treasury’s progress over the last eight years and outlines his goals for the future of the department. He said that fixing the housing finance system remains the major unfinished piece of work of post-financial crisis reform. While he said the housing market has improved, Lew acknowledged that many homeowners and neighborhoods continue to struggle. “A starting point for such legislation should be the principles President Obama laid out in 2013, which stressed a clearly-defined role for the...

A recent audit showed that the Federal Housing Finance Agency needs to do a better job at managing nonbank risks such as mortgage servicing transfers. In response, the FHFA said it will finalize a risk-based proposal to examine how well the GSEs manage that and other risks by the end of this month. The FHFA’s Inspector General said that the agency has not made sure that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are tackling potential risks. The IG noted that out of three advisory bulletins issued that addressed nonbank servicer risk, one of the GSEs only complied with one of the bulletins.The heavily redacted report doesn’t mention which GSE failed to comply with the bulletins, but a...