Mortgage lenders soon will be facing higher civil monetary penalties that may be imposed by federal agencies for violations of various lending, servicing and consumer financial protection laws and regulations, warned industry attorneys. As part of the budget bill signed into law last year, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act (FCPIAA) requires federal agencies to adjust the civil penalty amounts they charge for inflation by July 1, 2016. This will be followed be regular adjustments by January 15 of every year. The adjustments must be...
Two appraiser trade groups raised concerns this week that federal banking regulators are re-interpreting longstanding policy to exempt most of the mortgage market from appraisal rules. The American Society of Appraisers and the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers published a white paper and wrote to leaders in Congress detailing positions taken by federal regulators regarding the application of appraisal standards included in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Federal regulators are...
In a letter sent to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, the National Association of Realtors asked the agency to clarify that mortgage originators can share the closing disclosure (CD) form with third parties “if the lender receives a consent form from the consumer.” The trade group noted that, before the TRID rule was implemented, real estate agents aided their clients by answering questions about the HUD-1 and by reviewing terms agreed to in the sales contract, such as concessions, escrows, commissions and shares of prorated taxes.
According to investors in scratch-and-dent TRID mortgages and traders who play in the space, auctions of mortgages with errors (of all sorts) have continued apace ever since the CFPB announcement on TRID 2.0 rulemaking in early May and show little sign of slowing down. At the same time, the TRID mortgage disclosure rule appears to be less of an obstacle for the jumbo mortgage-backed securities market these days as JPMorgan Chase prepares a deal that will include residential loans subject to the rule.
Fannie Mae recently provided sellers with a little more guidance on its expectations related to lender self-reporting of errors in complying with the CFPB’s new disclosure regime under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
The 11th annual Xerox Path to Paperless Survey finds what appears to be an accelerated pace toward making the paperless mortgage a reality. And the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID is apparently helping.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, rolled out some of the details of a Republican proposal to replace the Dodd-Frank Act, the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act. The proposal includes the text of a measure already passed by the House, which would provide a QM safe harbor for any mortgage that has been held in portfolio by a depository institution since origination.
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.