House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, detailed in a speech a proposal that House Republicans have been working on that would replace the Dodd-Frank Act, including some important changes that would scale back the powers of the CFPB. The bill would shift the agency’s mission to include both consumer protection and maintaining competitive markets, with a cost-benefit analysis of rules performed by an Office of Economic Analysis. Also, it would replace the current single director with a bipartisan, five-member commission which would be subject to congressional oversight and appropriations.
The CFPB filed suit against Intercept Corp., a third-party payment processor located in Fargo, ND, and two of its executives for allegedly enabling unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by their clients. The CFPB alleges that Intercept and the executives violated the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition against unfair acts and practices by processing payments for clients without adequately investigating, monitoring or responding to red flags that indicated some clients were breaking the law or deceiving customers.
In its annual report to the CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission detailed the enforcement work it did last year in three cases dealing with mortgage assistance relief services, several of which involved alleged forensic audit scams.
The CFPB has issued its long-awaited payday lending proposed rule, in essence a highly restrictive ability-to-repay rule for small-dollar lending. Under the proposed full-payment test, lenders would be required to determine whether the borrower can afford the full amount of each payment when it’s due and still meet basic living expenses and major financial obligations.
Two industry sources confirmed this week that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will, indeed, begin examining for compliance with the integrated disclosure rule known as TRID this month.
Compass Point predicts that CFPB will lose its dispute with PHH. The CFPB is hosting an eRegulation webinar. HUD and First Citizens Bank (SC) resolve a fair lending complaint spurred by HMDA data. And CFPB staff exit for SunTrust and JH Capital Group.
When it comes to CFPB enforcement, analysts at Compass Point Research & Trading said in a recent client note that they expect little shift from the bureau’s current agenda.
A language preference question would raise several serious compliance and legal concerns that strongly weigh against including it on the Uniform Residential Loan Application, according to industry trade groups.
Fannie noted that lenders aren’t obligated to self-report any matters related to possible TRID non-compliance except in two limited circumstances where a repurchase demand is an authorized remedy.
Commercial banks and thrifts reported a further decline in their holdings of non-mortgage ABS during the first quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data. As of the end of March, banks held a combined $131.96 billion of ABS in their portfolio, including assets intended to be held to maturity as well as those available for sale. That represented a 2.3 percent drop from the end of 2015, and a hefty 15.9 percent decline from a year ago. It was...[Includes two data tables]