Late last week, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, released a detailed discussion draft of a revised version of his Financial CHOICE Act that would eviscerate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and make a number of other changes to the Dodd-Frank Act and a host of its mortgage-related regulations. Title VII of the draft, recently dubbed CHOICE Act 2.0, would dismantle the parts of the CFPB that the lending industry and other critics have found to be most problematic: its rulemaking, supervisory and enforcement authority, including unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices. The previous version of the bill would have retained...
Ocwen Financial – its financial future hanging in the balance – this week filed court documents challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which late last week brought civil charges against the $200 billion servicer. Ocwen is hardly new to regulatory scrutiny, but this time around the situation is different. Just when it thought it had cleaned up its act on servicing residential borrowers, it was sued by the CFPB and smacked with cease-and-desist orders from at least 24 states. Those orders – which the company is already challenging in court – prevent...
The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking comment on a proposal to ease restrictions on the allowable fees and charges military veterans may pay to obtain a VA home loan – a change that could make VA-backed financing more competitive in home purchases. The VA Loan Guaranty Service wants to hear from stakeholders as to how the agency can protect veterans from incurring excessive closing costs without being overly restrictive. Specifically, the VA is considering ways to revise the list of acceptable fees and charges that are impeding VA borrowers’ ability to compete against bidders using other home-purchase financing options that are not restricted by law or regulation. The VA rule on fees and charges has...
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