There is at least one curiosity in the GSE draft bill: any individual who ever served as a director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is prohibited from serving as a board member on the new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp.

The expansion of the CFPB’s consumer complaint database moved to another level last week, with the inclusion of state-by-state searchable information, as well as complaints about money transfers and credit reporting. The updates, among other things, add a new field to every complaint – the state it came from. While five-digit ZIP Code information – provided by the consumer – has always been included in the complaint information, adding the state helps people more easily localize data, according to the bureau. The state...

The Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General is putting the CFPB’s controversial use of enforcement attorneys in its examination process under the microscope, according to the OIG’s semiannual report to Congress. “We initiated an evaluation of the CFPB’s integration of enforcement attorneys into its examinations of banking and nonbanking institutions’ compliance with applicable consumer protection laws and regulations,” the OIG said. Its objectives for this evaluation are to assess the potential risks associated...

The U.S. Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court of the United States not to grant the petition for certiorari pending in Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc., a case that raises the question of whether disparate impact claims can be brought under the Fair Housing Act. Mt. Holly involves a challenge to a redevelopment plan in the Mount Holly Township of New Jersey over questions as to whether it was having a disparate impact on minorities. Last summer, the township formally asked the SCOTUS...

The CFPB and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors recently entered into a coordination framework that will help synchronize the supervision of non-depository financial services providers and covered depository institutions with more than $10 billion in assets. This framework provides processes for the coordination of exam schedules; the development of comprehensive supervisory plans for particular institutions; the coordination of information requests; streamlining of information sharing; and the provision of...

All 45 Republicans in the U.S. Senate have filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the case in which President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were declared unconstitutional. “The president’s decision to circumvent the American people by installing his appointees at a powerful federal agency while the Senate was continuing to hold sessions, and without obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate, is an unprecedented power grab,” Senate...

Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, is reportedly working behind the scenes to try to thaw the ice jam among his GOP colleagues in the Senate that continues to thwart movement on a vote of President Obama's second nomination of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB. The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, citing a senior GOP aide, said that Portman has been meeting with Cordray recently, as well as bringing together members of both parties to try to find some common ground on changes to the bureau that would address Republican complaints...

Scrutiny of and accountability from the CFPB is not just for Republicans on Capitol Hill these days. Thirteen Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee – including several African American lawmakers – have asked the CFPB to provide them information related to the agency’s scrutiny of indirect auto loans. “As representatives of both consumers and small businesses (auto dealers), we want to continue our work with you to ensure that lending practices in the auto, mortgage and credit card...

The CFPB recently issued some policy guidance on how states may use the Uniform State Test developed by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry as part of a qualified written test under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008. Section 1505(d) of the SAFE Act requires that state-licensed mortgage loan originators pass a “qualified written test.” Under the SAFE Act, this qualified written test must be developed by the NMLSR. A qualified written test must adequately measure the applicant’s...

The Mortgage Bankers Association and the Housing Policy Council jointly wrote the CFPB recently with a variety of additional changes to improve lenders’ certainty when they use the ability-to-repay rule’s Appendix Q to define the debt-to-income ratio for qualified mortgages under the general definition. The groups emphasized reducing what they saw as an over-reliance on subjective qualifications that could require lenders to use manual underwriting processes when they would prefer to use automatic underwriting...