Standard & Poor’s recently published an updated estimate of likely losses stemming from mortgage-related litigation, finding that banks face future costs of $56.5 billion to $104 billion.

The CFPB has gone ahead and issued the last big piece to the mortgage finance puzzle it was mandated to manufacture by the Dodd-Frank Act, the integrated mortgage-disclosure rule under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act and related forms. The good news for the mortgage finance industry – apart from the 20-month implementation period – is that the new rule and forms, part of the bureau’s “know before you owe” initiative, are not nearly as “transformational” towards the fundamental nature of the...

The scope of the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage final rule released earlier this year by the CFPB will make it more difficult for borrowers to obtain loans and tighten already-strict underwriting standards, according to analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. “We anticipate that the rule will prevent many of the types of loosely underwritten mortgages that caused systemic risk during the 2006 and 2007 origination period, but may do so at the expense of limiting credit access – sometimes to qualified borrowers,” they...

A handful of leading industry trade groups told the CFPB they generally support the agency’s recent interim final rule that clarifies the proper compliance with mortgage servicing requirements when a consumer is in bankruptcy or sends a cease communication request under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The interim final rule, issued Oct. 23, 2013, amends some of the mortgage servicing-related provisions in Regulation X (the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) and Regulation Z (the Truth In Lending...

Banks with less than $1 billion in assets had the highest compliance-related costs as a percentage of operating expenses, according to a recent study the CFPB conducted measuring the financial impact of deposit regulations on seven banks, ranging in asset size from under $1 billion to over $100 billion. First, in its examination of costs by business function, the bureau found that compliance costs appear to be concentrated in operations, information technology, human resources (as it relates to employee training), compliance and...

Late last week, the CFPB released updates to its exam procedures in connection with the new mortgage regulations issued in January 2013 and amended through Oct. 15, 2013. The updates offer financial institutions and other industry participants valuable guidance on how the bureau will conduct examinations for compliance with the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the agency said. The bureau updated the supervision manual to reflect the renumbering of the consumer financial protection regulations for...

Towards the end of November, the Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee passed six pieces of legislation in an attempt to bring more oversight, accountability and transparency to the CFPB, all of which largely passed on a party-line vote, give or take a vote or two. One of the most important of the batch for lenders is H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Act of 2013, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI. The legislation would require the CFPB to consider the safety and...

Last month, the CFPB took its first enforcement action against a payday lender by ordering Cash America International Inc. to refund up to $14 million to consumers for robo-signing court documents in debt collection lawsuits and for illegally overcharging service members and their families. The publicly traded financial services company headquartered in Ft. Worth, TX, also was compelled to pay a $5 million fine for the violations and for destroying records in advance of the bureau’s examination. In terms of specific...

The CFPB and the payday lending industry continue to lock horns over the bureau’s controversial white paper on payday and deposit advance loans, most recently with the bureau rejecting “in its entirety” an appeal from the Community Financial Services Association, national payday lending trade group, which is seeking a retraction of the white paper. Back in April, the bureau put out the white paper, which was based on a study it did of 15 million storefront payday loans and 100,000 accounts eligible for deposit advances. Among its findings...

Certain online payday lenders and other businesses deemed to present risks to consumers could find themselves banned from the Automatic Clearing House network, thanks to increased scrutiny from the CFPB and other authorities. Speaking before the Clearing House Annual Conference late last month, CFPB Director Richard Cordray invoked the bureau’s mandate to subject nonbank entities to the same level of regulatory scrutiny as banking institutions. “We now have the ability to examine participants in both the bank and nonbank segments of...