Well, the good news for the mortgage industry is that someone finally got around to talking about the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act when it came time to file another brief in PHH Corp. v. CFPB. But the bad news: It was the CFPB, and it doubled down on the main arguments it made the first time around, reaffirming its controversial interpretation. The CFPB insisted Director Richard Cordray correctly interpreted the act. First, the agency said PHH’s “kickback scheme” violated RESPA. The interpretation of RESPA by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was incorrect, said the CFPB. “Its crucial error was holding that the meaning of section 8(c)(2) of RESPA – in ...
Three financial regulation scholars told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the CFPB is a highly accountable agency when looked at in its entirety. Making that argument in a friend of the court brief in PHH Corp. v. CFPB were two law professors, Michael Barr at the University of Michigan Law School and Adam Levitin at Georgetown University Law Center, along with Deepak Gupta, founding principal of the Gupta Wessler law firm in Washington, DC. Gupta was senior litigation counsel and senior counsel for enforcement strategy at the CFPB back in the days when Elizabeth Warren was setting up the fledgling agency. “Viewed holistically, the CFPB is a highly accountable agency,” the trio said....
In another unusual, unexpected development in the legal wrangling between the CFPB and PHH Corp. over alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the U.S. Department of Justice, now under the direction of the Trump administration, has asked permission of the court for a few minutes of its time to present its case. Oral arguments in the case, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, are scheduled for May 24, 2017. The court has allocated 30 minutes per side for arguments. In an unopposed brief filed earlier this month with the USCA, the DOJ asked for 10 minutes of argument time. “The United States agrees with petitioner PHH Corp. that the for-cause removal ...
During a conference call last week with members of the news media, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank, the one-time chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, defended the CFPB and criticized congressional Republicans for their attack on the agency, accusing them of hypocrisy on multiple fronts. “I thought Republicans were concerned about excessive power in the executive branch, that they want to defend their congressional prerogative,” said Frank. But during the debate on the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress decided quite consciously that we would have an independent, single director, independent in the sense that the president could not fire that person at will,” he noted. “That was a congressional restriction on presidential appointment power, no question about it.” But now, apparently their ...
More changes, or at least additional guidance, may be in the offing for the pending Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is scheduled to take effect next year, agency Director Richard Cordray said last week during an appearance on Capitol Hill. During a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-CA, pointed out, “Studies have shown that in some geographic areas, it is possible to determine the identity of nearly 100 percent of the borrowers using the data that lenders are required to collect and report by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. This is despite the fact that that act supposedly provides for anonymous data in its final form.” Sherman also ...
Visits by CFPB Director Richard Cordray to Capitol Hill are always times of high drama, or high theater, depending on your perspective, and his visit last week to deliver his agency’s semi-annual report to the House Financial Services Committee was no exception. One of the hot buttons Republicans kept pressing was the bureau’s use of civil investigative demands. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-MO, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, got the ball rolling by bringing up the bureau’s proposed changes related to the disclosure of records information, issued in August 2016. “As I understand it, this amendment would impose what would amount to an unprecedented gag order on any individual or entity under investigation by the CFPB,” ...
The CFPB is not letting any grass grow under its feet on the examination and supervision front, the bureau’s latest semi-annual report to Congress shows. Under its previous Examiner Commissioning Program (ECP), which became effective Oct. 27, 2014, the agency had issued 173 commissions to examiners, field managers, and headquarters staff. Under the new ECP, an additional 20 examiners have achieved commissioned examiner status, bringing the total number of commissioned examiners to 187, which accounts for attrition through retirement and departures from the CFPB. On the technology front, the bureau is upgrading its existing examination management software. “The new system will aid the CFPB in supervising and enforcing federal consumer financial law by utilizing current technology to support monitoring of ...
Community lending representatives met with Trump administration officials last week to push a package of pro-growth, regulatory relief proposals, including a number of changes to the mortgage rules promulgated by the CFPB. The meeting was held with Treasury Department officials under President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the Treasury to review existing laws, treaties, regulations, guidance, reporting and recordkeeping to determine if they promote or inhibit federal regulation of the U.S. financial system as per Trump’s core principles outlined in Executive Order 13772. Meeting with the Trump administration officials were a handful of CEOs of bank that are members of the Independent Community Bankers of America.Among the proposed changes the trade group advocated was a more expansive qualified mortgage ...
Consumer complaints to the CFPB about mortgages are down in every single category tracked by this publication, and in fact show double-digit declines in all but one grouping, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside the CFPB. Total mortgage-related criticisms to the bureau came to a relatively scant 8,334 for the period ending March 31, 2017, the second lowest first quarter total in the five-plus years since the agency began collecting such data in the fourth quarter of 2011. That number represents a decline of 14.8 percent from the fourth quarter and an even larger drop of 23.0 percent from the same period one year ago.On the loan modification front, borrower gripes fell to 2,987 during 1Q17, ...
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