Prospect Mortgage had roughly $975 million in committed warehouse lines at yearend. Its three largest providers include UBS Securities, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Fannie Mae.

In early September, in an exclusive report, Inside Mortgage Finance broke the news about funding delays at the company. At the time, a Nationstar spokesman blamed the situation on the changing of document custodian vendors. (It would not name the vendor.)

When survey participants were asked to what extent the QM rule would affect their business, the most frequent responses were 10.1 percent to 20 percent and 90.1 percent to 100 percent, each of which snagged 20 percent shares of the responses.

Adam Levitin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, is critical of efforts to align the QRM rule with the QM. “Skin in the game is meant to be a systemic stability regulation, but it has instead been pegged to a consumer protection regulation,” he said.

In another sign of how serious the CFPB intends to be in pursuing alleged mortgage servicing abuses, the bureau is planning to take an enforcement action against Green Tree Servicing LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Walter Investment Management Corp., for alleged violations of federal consumer financial laws."On Feb. 20, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission and CFPB staff advised Green Tree that it has sought authority to bring an enforcement action and negotiate a resolution related to alleged violations of various federal consumer financial laws," the parent company said last week in earnings-related disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A small mortgage lender that mostly provides loss mitigation financing to distressed homeowners has strayed into the CFPB's crosshairs and was compelled to pay $83,000 in a civil money penalty to settle charges it illegally split fees in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Begun in 2004, 1st Alliance Lending, LLC, is an East Hartford, CT-based lender that purchases troubled mortgages from servicers, and then reaches out to the affected borrowers and offers them new loans with reduced principal amounts under federal mortgage efforts such as the Hope for Homeowners program.

In its first public enforcement action against a company in the for-profit college industry, the CFPB sued ITT Educational Services, Inc., over predatory lending allegations. The bureau alleges that ITT exploited its students and used high-pressure tactics to push them into high-cost private student loans that would probably end in default. The CFPB said it is seeking restitution for victims, a civil fine, and an injunction against the company. As far as the bureau is concerned, like the mortgage market in the lead-up to the financial crisis, the for-profit college industry may be experiencing misaligned incentives.

The CFPB last week urged the nation's top credit card companies to make credit scores and related content freely available to their customers. Apparently, some credit card companies recently began making credit scoring information freely and regularly available to their customers on monthly statements or through online access. CFPB Director Richard Cordray recently sent letters to the nation's top credit card companies urging them to follow suit. "A regularly available credit score may prompt more Americans to review their credit standing and pull their free annual credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com," the CFPB said.

Among the components of the CFPB's ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, the 3 percent cap on fees and points was by far of greatest concern, a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors found. According to the NAR, 60 percent of survey respondents indicated that they were "very concerned" about the 3 percent points-and-fees cap. Also on the list of high concerns were the limitations on the annual percentage rate relative to the average prime offer rate for the general QM standard and the FHA's QM standards.

As the CFPB contemplates a possible rulemaking on consumer debt collection, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition advised the bureau that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is pretty much obsolete, as far as mortgage servicers go, due mostly to key legislative developments since the law was enacted. One such change was the 1999 enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act consumer financial privacy protections, which are more comprehensive and more modern than those under the FDCPA, according to the CMC. Then there was passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which assigned to the bureau rulemaking authority under the FDCPA and other enumerated consumer financial laws.