Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney announced last week that he plans to restructure an office that aims to help student loan borrowers. Many consumer advocates worried that the change will strip the office of all functions except for consumer education. In a memo obtained by Inside the CFPB, Mulvaney announced to all staffers that the Office of Students and Young Consumers will be folded into the Office of Financial Education. Both offices are part of the bureau’s Consumer Education ...
PHH Corp. decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a lower court ruling that effectively overturned the CFPB’s controversial interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under former Director Richard Cordray. The lender’s lawsuit also unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the CFPB. In January, the en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with PHH on the RESPA components of the dispute, invalidating ...
Although there are fewer than two months left for Mick Mulvaney as the CFPB’s interim director, he continues to bring in his people to key positions in almost all divisions of the bureau, potentially weakening the role of career staffers. It is the first time that the consumer agency has experienced a political transition, and the new leadership appears to have adopted a dramatically different approach on how to treat consumers and the industry. To help reset the new political agenda at the ...
Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, a vociferous critic of the consumer agency’s budget, is reportedly looking for ways to cut spending by tens of millions of dollars, including an option to move dozens of employees to the basement of its Washington headquarters. According to an internal cost-saving analysis obtained by Bloomberg News, Mulvaney’s top aides proposed to add 70 work spaces in the CFPB main building’s basement, which may save $16.6 million. Other ...
Mortgage lenders spent a considerable amount of money implementing the qualified-mortgage rule, and many are not keen about a major overhaul, according to a survey by Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Some 54 percent of 122 respondents to the survey favored no or only modest changes to QM rules. There was little variation between banks and independents, or large and small lenders. However, lender attitudes on regulatory change vary significantly with the size of ...
The House last week voted to kill the CFPB’s auto lending guidance, but the chances of a similar override of the bureau’s payday rule are fading, attorneys said. In a 234-175 vote, the House repealed Obama-era CFPB guidance on indirect auto lending that subjected auto dealers and others to liability for discriminatory price markups. The Senate passed the Congressional Review Act resolution last month, and President Trump is expected to sign the rollback. Congress used the CRA ...