All 45 Republicans in the U.S. Senate have filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the case in which President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were declared unconstitutional. “The president’s decision to circumvent the American people by installing his appointees at a powerful federal agency while the Senate was continuing to hold sessions, and without obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate, is an unprecedented power grab,” Senate...
The CFPB and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors recently entered into a coordination framework that will help synchronize the supervision of non-depository financial services providers and covered depository institutions with more than $10 billion in assets. This framework provides processes for the coordination of exam schedules; the development of comprehensive supervisory plans for particular institutions; the coordination of information requests; streamlining of information sharing; and the provision of...
The U.S. Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court of the United States not to grant the petition for certiorari pending in Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc., a case that raises the question of whether disparate impact claims can be brought under the Fair Housing Act. Mt. Holly involves a challenge to a redevelopment plan in the Mount Holly Township of New Jersey over questions as to whether it was having a disparate impact on minorities. Last summer, the township formally asked the SCOTUS...
The Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General is putting the CFPB’s controversial use of enforcement attorneys in its examination process under the microscope, according to the OIG’s semiannual report to Congress. “We initiated an evaluation of the CFPB’s integration of enforcement attorneys into its examinations of banking and nonbanking institutions’ compliance with applicable consumer protection laws and regulations,” the OIG said. Its objectives for this evaluation are to assess the potential risks associated...
The CFPB filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida last week against American Debt Settlement Solutions, Inc., alleging that the debt-relief company was abusive and deceptive in misleading consumers across the country and charging illegal fees for its services. “Today we are taking action to halt a debt-relief company we believe has been preying on financially vulnerable consumers,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Consumers struggling to pay off a debt are among the...
The expansion of the CFPB’s consumer complaint database moved to another level last week, with the inclusion of state-by-state searchable information, as well as complaints about money transfers and credit reporting. The updates, among other things, add a new field to every complaint – the state it came from. While five-digit ZIP Code information – provided by the consumer – has always been included in the complaint information, adding the state helps people more easily localize data, according to the bureau. The state...
The CFPB, as requested by the mortgage lending industry, has delayed implementing its ban on the financing of credit insurance premiums until Jan. 10, 2014, the effective date for most of the mortgage‐related rules it issued in January. The rule had originally been scheduled to kick in June 1. That effective date was originally proposed because the bureau believed the ban did not present a significant implementation burden for affected institutions. …
Among the changes that the CFPB made to its ability-to-repay rule last week are revisions to how loan originator compensation is counted in the qualified mortgage points-and-fees calculation. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, points and fees on a qualified mortgage may not exceed 3 percent of the loan balance. Further, points and fees that exceed 5 percent will trigger the protections for high-cost mortgages under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. Dodd-Frank also mandates that loan originator compensation be counted toward...
The CFPB likely removed a noticeable amount of political pressure – but not all – from its back by responding to some industry concerns with its earlier ability-to-repay final rule. Last week, the bureau finalized amendments to the ATR rule that expand the legal protections for small lenders to make loans beyond the original rule’s main requirements, and it provided such creditors with a longer period of time in which to adjust to the rule’s restrictions on balloon mortgages. Under last week’s final rule, the CFPB...
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