The CFPB last week formally proposed amending its integrated mortgage disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act – the so-called TRID – to move the rule’s effective date to October 3, 2015, which would give the industry a two-month delay. Although the TILA-RESPA final rule was published on December 31, 2013, and received widespread public and Congressional attention, the bureau said it “recently discovered that it inadvertently had not submitted the rule report to Congress as required.” The bureau’s oversight came despite having 18 months to anticipate and plan for the submission. “Immediately upon discovering its error, the bureau submitted the rule report to both Houses of Congress and the Government Accountability Office on ...
The CFPB, much to the lending industry’s consternation, last week “went live” with the online publishing of more than 7,700 consumer complaint narratives addressing mortgages, bank accounts, credit cards, debt collection and other issues. Under its new final policy statement, the bureau is extending its existing practice of disclosing data on consumer complaints “to include narratives for which opt-in consumer consent is obtained and a robust personal information scrubbing standard and methodology has been applied.” The purposes of the database include providing consumers with timely and understandable information about financial products and services, and improving the functioning, transparency and efficiency of markets for such products and services. The CFPB said that adding additional information to the database, and hearing narratives ...
The U.S. Supreme Court last week validated the disparate-impact legal theory as it relates to housing discrimination in the case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. And while the immediate effect of the ruling has more to do with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s enforcement of the Fair Housing Act’s restrictions on disparate impact, there are definitely implications for the CFPB’s enforcement of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s prohibitions against disparate impact. The crux of this case was whether disparate-impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, where a plaintiff alleges discrimination based on the disparate impact that a defendant’s “facially neutral” practice has upon members of ...
Since then, Quicken has conducted a thorough review and has “proactively taken steps to ensure all [VA] mailings reflect our brand and quality standards,” Emerson said.
GNMA to Modernize Management of Loan Docs that Serve as Pool Collateral. Ginnie Mae plans to reform its document custody policies to minimize agency risks. Michael Drayne, Ginnie’s senior vice president of issuer and portfolio management, said the changes will apply to documents for loans that serve as collateral for securitized pools of mortgages. Current policies will be reexamined to see whether they adequately reflect and mitigate actual risks. Existing technology will be reevaluated as well. Ginnie will also study how to integrate document-custody functions and information into the agency’s systems. In addition, Ginnie will look at whether information about the status of pool collateral should be managed at the loan level, not merely the pool level. Furthermore, the agency will reevaluate the need to reexamine its enforcement methods and whether they should be ...
The Internal Revenue Service is rejecting some lender requests for tax-return transcripts due to a recent data breach, warned the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service in a lender alert. According to the RHS, the IRS action is meant to deter any fraud that might result from identity theft. The IRS has not responded to a request for confirmation or comment as we went to press. An IRS tax transcript is required as part of a complete loan-application package submitted to a mortgage lender to request a conditional loan commitment. The transcript contains the borrower’s tax record for the current tax year and three prior processing years. The RHS, which guarantees rural housing loans under its Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP), has issued guidance if a transcript request from a lender returns with the following message: “Due to limitations, the IRS is unable to ...
Rural borrowers will be paying a higher upfront fee for mortgage loans with a Rural Housing Service guaranty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced. In an advance notice, the USDA said it will raise the upfront guaranty fee for loans originated under the RHS’ Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program in FY2016. For purchase and refinance loans, the upfront guaranty fee will change from 2.00 percent to 2.75 percent of the loan amount. The annual fee will remain at 0.50 percent. The fee increase will apply to guaranteed loans obligated on Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2016, the USDA said. A loan is obligated when the USDA has approved a complete loan-application package and issued a conditional commitment for a single-family housing loan guarantee to the USDA lender. The new fee will apply to loan guaranty requests submitted to the USDA prior to Sept. 30, 2015, without a ...
The frequently-asked-questions guidance to using the FHA’s consolidated Single Family Policy Handbook is good to have though it shows just how complicated the FHA’s mortgage origination process is, according to lenders. In fact, the updated FHA handbook could still be confusing to borrowers simply because a lot more information is concentrated in one source, lenders said. According to the FHA, the more than 290 FAQs will enable lenders to make operation adjustments before the handbook goes into effect on Sept. 14, 2015. The FAQs are for information purposes only and do not apply to current FHA policies. They do not establish or modify policy contained in the handbook. The FAQs reiterate information in the handbook under headings such as Credit Underwriting, Closing and Insuring, FHA System Support and Consumer Information. Industry observers noted that the FAQs did not ...
Financial institution regulators in Washington state have charged Quicken Loans with using false, deceptive and misleading advertisements to target veterans and active military members with adjustable-rate refinance offers. According to a complaint filed by the Division of Consumer Services of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Quicken Loans falsely implied in its direct mailings that it is associated with the Department of Veteran Affairs. The VA provides guarantees to fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgage loans to veterans and servicemembers through the agency’s Home Loan Guaranty program. Quicken Loans allegedly used graphics in its 5/1 ARM solicitations that resembled the seal of the VA, with the words “Governed By: United States Veterans Department.” In addition, the Michigan-based lender allegedly used an ...
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