Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney recently said the agency is still providing fair lending oversight, contrary to reports in the media. Meanwhile, a new controversy has erupted over the political appointee named to lead the agency’s fair lending operations. “We are still very much in the fair lending business and we are going to remain active in that space,” said Mulvaney in a fair lending symposium held by the CFPB. Consumer advocates have been concerned ...

Mortgage trade groups are asking the CFPB to reopen the loan originator compensation rule to reduce lenders’ regulatory burden and better serve consumers. A dozen industry trade groups – including the American Bankers Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the Real Estate Service Providers Council – recently wrote to Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney with suggested changes to the agency’s LO compensation rule under the ...

The American Bankers Association said many questions about new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting remain unanswered and proposed guidance from the CFPB won’t give lenders sufficient legal protection. The CFPB amended the HMDA rule in 2015, implementing expanded data collection fields specifically mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act along with some based on the bureau’s discretionary authority. The net result expanded the required ...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, has raised ethical questions about Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney’s recent appearance at a “closed-door event” where he reportedly discussed midterm elections with Republican officials and donors. Warren, a harsh Mulvaney critic, said his attendance at the event in New York City on Sept. 8 may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits certain employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging ...

The CFPB’s recent efforts to create a regulatory sandbox for financial technology (fintech) companies would benefit the mortgage industry, said a former CFPB attorney. Ever since the agency hired Paul Watkins, a lawyer who helped establish the nation’s first regulatory sandbox for fintech companies, to lead its Office of Innovation in July, fintech regulation has become an area of focus at the bureau. The CFPB in August joined a global fintech regulatory initiative ...

The CFPB recently began putting more emphasis on protecting “credit-invisible” consumers and how financial innovation might expand access to credit. Credit-invisible consumers are those without an established credit history with the three national credit reporting agencies who therefore cannot be scored by most traditional credit scoring models. The first CFPB advisory committees meeting this year – held after all the chaos of disbanding and reconstitution ...

While the CFPB is responsible for ensuring fairness to American consumers in their financial affairs, the agency is now facing workplace discrimination and retaliation charges from former and current agency employees. A class action complaint was filed against the CFPB and Acting Director Mick Mulvaney in September, alleging discrimination and retaliation against minority and female workers. The complaint was filed to the U.S. District Court for the ...

CFPB to Open Office in Atlanta, Likely to Relocate Over 100 Employees. The CFPB recently announced plans to open a new office in Atlanta as its southeast regional headquarters. The relocation is expected to take place in late 2019. The southeast regional team is currently housed in the bureau’s DC headquarters. The CFPB said the relocation will align the bureau with its regulatory partners that already have a regional presence in Atlanta [Includes two briefs] ...

Harassment complaints filed against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt took center stage during a House Financial Services Committee hearing late this week in which his accuser testified that the agency, along with its inspector general, treated her unfairly. Simone Grimes began her career at the FHFA in 2010 and became a special advisor in 2015. She complained that she was not given the same benefits as her predecessor in this temporary role and was advised that Watt would ...