Despite some reports of credit access loosening, it’s harder to get a mortgage today than it was during the housing bubble, according to the Urban Institute. With borrowers being denied at a much higher rate than in the past, lower-credit mortgage applicants are dropping out of the housing market. As access to credit tightened after the financial crisis, many lower-credit applicants were discouraged from applying, the UI study noted. That led to a higher-credit applicant pool, which in turn led to a lower rejection rate. This caused...
Fed Chairman Janet Yellen on the future of Fannie and Freddie: “…I would hope that Congress would decide explicitly on what the government’s role is and if there are guarantees, that they would be recognized and priced appropriately.”
Sponsors can generally meet the requirements by retaining the most subordinate tranches of the securitization equaling at least 5.0 percent of the deal…
The subcommittee chairman notes: “Therefore, I was surprised by your public hesitancy last week to affirm that the president’s regulatory freeze applies to the CFPB…”
Mortgage borrowers still have plenty to complain to the CFPB about, especially on the mortgage servicing front, the latest monthly consumer complaint report from the bureau suggests. “The most common issues identified by consumers are problems when they are unable to pay (loan modification, collection, foreclosure),” which were cited by 49 percent, according to the CFPB, followed by issues making payments (loan servicing, payments, escrow accounts), identified by 33 percent. Other homeowners brought up problems having to do with applying for a loan (application, originator, mortgage broker), which was noted by 9 percent, followed by signing the agreement (settlement process and costs), which was highlighted by 5 percent, and receiving a credit offer (credit decision, underwriting [With Two Data Charts]....
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, is looking to retain the CFPB, restructure key parts of the agency, and drastically limit its authority, Inside the CFPB has learned.According to a draft memorandum of the major changes to Hensarling’s Financial CHOICE Act, now dubbed CHOICE Act 2.0, the bureau “is to be retained and restructured as a civil law enforcement agency similar to the Federal Trade Commission, with additional restrictions on its authority,” as follows: Sole director, removable by the president at will. Rule-making authority limited to enumerated statutes. Unfair, deceptive acts or practices authority repealed in full. Supervision repealed. Consumer complaint database repealed.•Market monitoring authority repealed. Enforcement powers limited to cease-and-desist and civil investigative demand/subpoena powers....
President Donald Trump has put the Dodd-Frank Act in his crosshairs, issuing an executive order earlier this month that directs the Treasury secretary to work with the members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to review the current regulatory regime and evaluate it according to a handful of “core principles” Trump believes should shape the regulation of the U.S. financial system. The principles include fostering informed consumer choices, preventing bailouts, promoting economic growth, tailoring regulations and ensuring regulatory accountability. Industry observers and Republicans and Democrats alike on Capitol Hill saw the order as the beginning of an attack on Dodd-Frank and perhaps even a shot across the bow of the CFPB, with negative implications for the agency’s mortgage lending and ...
Rep. Tom Graves, R-GA, chairman of the House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, recently wrote to CFPB Director Richard Cordray seeking official clarification regarding the agency’s compliance with a memorandum entitled, “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.” The memo was sent by White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, on behalf of President Donald Trump, to the heads of all executive departments and agencies late last month. The departments and agencies were generally directed to “send no regulation to the Office of the Federal Register until a department or agency head appointed or designated by the president … reviews and approves the regulation.” Further, regulations that have been sent to the OFR but not published in the Federal Register are to be immediately...
President Trump has been in office nearly a month and CFPB Director Richard Cordray is still on the job, despite some early developments that suggested his days as head of the bureau are numbered under the new administration. The most recent headhunting expedition reportedly involved Brian Brooks, currently general counsel at Fannie Mae, who reportedly has close ties to Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, CNBC reported last week. Up on Capitol Hill, Republicans such as House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-NE, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, both recently called on Trump to sack Cordray. “The bureau’s mission to prohibit ‘abusive practices’ sounds great. But all that ...
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