Democrats are howling after Mick Mulvaney’s blatant “pay to play” comments at a banking industry event last week, calling for him to step down as acting director of the CFPB. Mulvaney said in a speech to the American Bankers Association that he only met with lobbyists who gave him financial donations when he served on Capitol Hill. “We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” said Mulvaney, former member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. “If you’re a lobbyist who never ...

The month long deadlock in Congress over the bill to roll back various parts of the Dodd-Frank Act might soon end following an offer by the House GOP to pass the bill in its current form, signaled by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. “I’d be happy to attend multiple signing ceremonies in the White House,” said Hensarling, who has previously expressed his desire to add dozens of House bills to the Senate-passed reg relief bill. In remarks at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, he added ...

The CFPB last week finalized a proposed amendment to its “Know Before You Owe” rule, fixing what is commonly known in the industry as the “black hole” issue. The final rule adopts a July 2017 proposal with only minor, technical changes. In broad terms, it gives lenders more flexibility in issuing revised closing disclosures that comply with the complex disclosure requirements mandated by Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ...

Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has hired an experienced bureaucrat to fill a top political post overseeing the CFPB’s rulemaking, while another senior staffer who has been at the agency since its establishment has left. Mulvaney appointed Thomas Pahl, a former acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, to oversee the agency’s rulemaking. He joined the CFPB in April as a political appointee. The bureau is still under a freeze on hiring career ...

Two bipartisan bills recently introduced in Congress would force the CFPB to provide better guidance to the industry and keep the agency from regulating the insurance market. The Give Useful Information to Define Effective Compliance Act, or GUIDE Compliance Act (H.R. 5534), was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, and cosponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-CO. It would compel the CFPB to issue legally binding guidance and establish time ...

The Senate voted 51-47 to block guidance issued by the CFPB five years ago that said indirect auto lenders can be subject to liability for discriminatory pricing markups. The Congressional Review Act resolution introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, late last month was passed with the help of one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV. The vote generally went along party lines. The five-page bulletin, titled “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ...

Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the consumer bureau created under the Dodd-Frank Act, is serious about changing the agency’s name to “correct” its designation from the CFPB to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Since its creation during the Obama administration, the agency has been branded as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or the CFPB. Mulvaney said its title in the Dodd-Frank Act is the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, or BCFP ...

Altisource Portfolio Solutions disclosed that the CFPB won’t take any enforcement action against the company regarding its relationship with Ocwen Financial Corp., which was sued by the bureau for mortgage misconduct last year. The vendor – started years ago by Ocwen and then spun off – revealed last week that it received a letter from the CFPB on April 3 that the bureau has completed the investigation of the service provider and is currently not recommending any enforcement ...

Industry trade groups suggested numerous changes to the CFPB’s civil investigation processes aimed at reducing burdens for financial institutions and ending the bureau’s “regulation by enforcement.” The civil investigative demand is a measure used by the bureau’s Office of Enforcement to gather information from entities against which the bureau may take enforcement action. Trade groups representing those regulated entities suggested changes on every single element of the ...

Consumer complaints to the CFPB related to mortgages are down sharply from a year ago, with huge declines in every major category, according to a new Inside the CFPB analysis. Total gripes filed during the first quarter of 2018 were down 36.3 percent from a year ago, although the volume was up slightly – 2.5 percent – from the fourth quarter of 2017. Among specific kinds of mortgage complaints, criticisms about loan modifications dropped both annually and quarterly... [Includes one data chart]