The CFPB now has the lion’s share of the oversight of the consumer debt collection market. Under the “larger participant” rule recently adopted by the CFPB, any firm with more than $10 million in annual receipts from consumer debt collection activities is now subject to the bureau’s supervisory authority. “This authority extends to about 175 debt collectors, which accounts for over 60 percent of the industry’s annual receipts in the consumer debt collection market,” the bureau said in its annual report to Congress on the Fair...

Reps. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, and David Scott, D-GA, both members of the House Financial Services Committee, have reintroduced the Consumer Mortgage Choice Act, H.R.1077, legislation that would ease the definition of points and fees that the CFPB articulated in its ability-to-repay final rule issued in January. The definition is a key factor in determining whether a mortgage is a “qualified mortgage,” which requires that fees and points not exceed 3 percent. Currently, the definition would make hundreds of thousands of...

The CFPB issued a proposed rule that would extend its supervisory authority to large nonbank student loan servicers, which it would define as those handling more than 1 million borrower accounts. With that threshold, the bureau estimates that it would have authority to supervise the seven largest student loan servicers. “Combined, those seven service the loans of 49 million borrower accounts, representing most of the activity in the student loan servicing market,” the CFPB said. The bureau currently oversees student loan servicing at...

The CFPB recently provided a sampling of the kind of input it has been receiving as part of its student loan affordability initiative.Some of the issues identified by the more than 500 responses received to date include refinance products and the capital markets. “A number of participants, including a publisher of websites on financial aid and a start‐up CEO, described how there may be significant demand for credit‐worthy borrowers to refinance their loans and lock‐in lower rates, but creative lenders face hurdles in the capital markets...

Late last week, the CFPB issue a final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act’s Regulation Z, stating that the 2009 Credit Card Act’s limits on fees apply only during the first year after an account is opened. The rule reverses a previous interpretation from the Federal Reserve back in 2011 which said that the act’s provisions (which limit fees a card issuer can charge to 25 percent of the account’s credit limit when first opened) also applied to fees charged before the account was opened...

The Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General is expected to produce the results of two CFPB-related audits by the end of this month, one of which is an evaluation of the CFPB’s contract solicitation and selection process. “This evaluation’s objective is to determine whether the CFPB’s contract solicitation and selection processes and practices are compliant with applicable rules established by the Federal Acquisition Regulation,” the OIG said in its latest work plan. “We plan to focus on a specific contract...

The CFPB recently announced regional directors in its Office of Supervision Examinations. Edwin Chow, in the West region, is one of the founding staffers of the CFPB, and he joined the implementation team in September 2010. He brings 26 years of experience serving as acting regional director, regional deputy director, and assistant regional director with the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board San Francisco office. Anthony Gibbs, in the Midwest region, is the newest...

Grassley Can’t Get a Vote on Independent IG. As the Senate was wrapping up its calendar before its spring break with an extensive amount of work on a budget, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, was pushing a non-binding amendment calling for the creation of an independent inspector general at the CFPB – a role currently being filled by the Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General. An aide to Grassley said his amendment was not able to get called up for a vote, due to the sheer volume of amendments being advanced by members...

The Biggest Threat to Credit Unions? The CFPB. During “Regulatory Update Day” at the National Association of Federal Credit Union’s Regulatory Compliance School last week, NAFCU General Counsel and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Carrie Hunt said, “The CFPB is the biggest threat to credit union operations.” Mortgage Market Needs Confidence, Reliability Restored. “This country has a tremendous need to restore confidence and reliability to the mortgage market, which as you know is the single largest market for consumer finance,”...

FHFA's plan for a single MBS platform that would be managed by a new government entity separate from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac does not mean the agency is contemplating consolidating the two GSEs at this time.