Meanwhile, the share price of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac common continues to rise...

Last week’s surprise presidential victory by Republican billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump means some big changes for rulemaking and enforcement activities at the CFPB, to the benefit of the financial services industry, according to the consensus of a variety of analysts and experts. The most likely changes have to do with replacing the bureau’s single director leadership structure a bipartisan commission, and subjecting the agency to the congressional appropriations process. But the tenure of the current director, Richard Cordray, also could come into play, some feel. FBR & Co. analyst Edward Mills and his team predict the agency will have a new director “following the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling [involving PHH Corp.] that allows the president to ...

The Community Home Lenders Association told the CFPB that the existence of the bureau as a dual regulator along with state supervision of nonbank lenders is exacerbating the consolidation of such community lenders to the detriment of consumers. “In establishing and implementing mortgage rules, Congress and the CFPB have recognized the value of smaller community lender/servicers and created certain targeted exemptions, such as certain Regulation Z and Regulation X exemptions for smaller servicers,” the CHLA said. The trade organization’s remarks were delivered in a public comment letter submitted to the agency as part of the bureau’s TRID clarifying rulemaking process. The problem is, these exemptions generally are targeted towards community banks and credit unions, and legislation pending in Congress is ...

Implementing the changes that the CFPB is proposing to its TRID rule will involve the deployment of a considerable amount of resources, time and energy, software vendors told the bureau recently. In a comment letter sent to the bureau, DocMagic said that many of the agency’s proposed changes would require a substantial amount of reprogramming by not only technology vendors but also by creditors, investors and settlement agents. “In addition, each programming change would need to be tested to ensure the software integrations among the thousands of companies in the industry work properly,” the company said. DocMagic also pointed out that it operates SmartCLOSE, which is a collaborative closing portal that allows creditors and settlement agents to collaborate to complete ...

Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently expressed support for those portions of the CFPB’s TRID clarifying rulemaking that facilitate their Uniform Closing Dataset, which they developed to support the accurate disclosure of data on the closing disclosure. “The GSEs believe that the bureau should retain the current status of the sample forms, specifically, as model forms under the Truth in Lending Act and standard forms under the rule pursuant to authority under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act,” Fannie and Freddie said in a recent comment letter to the bureau. “Much of the required text of the integrated disclosure is dynamic. It is not contained in the blank forms, and instead is only illustrated when the form is ...

The Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Servicers Working Group last week requested guidance from the CFPB on a variety of implementation issues having to do with the bureau’s recently finalized mortgage servicing regulation. One of the things they asked for in correspondence to the bureau was confirmation that servicers may send bankruptcy statements before the regulation’s effective date, even if the servicers are not currently sending them. On the issue of short-term loss mitigation, the industry participants requested clarification that, prior to Oct. 19, 2017, servicers may offer and provide short-term repayment plans without a complete loss mitigation application, and without continuing to exercise diligence in completing an application, provided a handful of requirements are otherwise being met. They ...

The CFPB has issued an amendment to its guidance on service providers, clarifying that mortgage lenders have a degree of flexibility in deciding the appropriate course of action for managing their risk. In its revised bulletin, the bureau began by noting that it “recognizes that the use of service providers is often an appropriate business decision for supervised banks and nonbanks. “Supervised banks and nonbanks may outsource certain functions to service providers due to resource constraints, use service providers to develop and market additional products or services, or rely on expertise from service providers that would not otherwise be available without significant investment,” it added. However, the mere fact that a supervised bank or nonbank enters into a business relationship ...

The CFPB’s latest supervisory highlights report provides some Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data collection and reporting reminders for 2017. For starters, beginning with HMDA data collected in 2017 and submitted in 2018, responsibility to receive and process HMDA data will transfer from the Federal Reserve Board to the CFPB. “The HMDA agencies have agreed that a covered institution filing HMDA data collected in or after 2017 with the CFPB will be deemed to have submitted the HMDA data to the appropriate federal agency,” the bureau stated. (The HMDA agencies are the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Fed, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.) ...