Sallie Mae is set to issue the first ABS of the year backed by private student loans, a market that is expected to reach 2012 levels although student loans are drawing more scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Sallies SLM Private Education Loan Trust 2013-A will have an initial pool balance of $1.31 billion and its expected to receive a AAA rating, based on a presale report from Standard & Poors. Some $27.1 billion in federally-backed and private student loan ABS was issued...
Adherents of a global tax proposal that would help countries raise revenue and make the financial sector pay for its fair share of crisis costs are calling on the U.S. for support. But first, the U.S. must overcome its fear of the financial transaction tax, or FTT, before this controversial tax option can be adopted globally, according to panelists in a forum hosted this week by the Center for American Progress. The CAP believes the tax is a smart policy tool that is both a revenue raiser and a stabilizer of volatile financial markets. The FTT is...
The Federal Reserve is open to the idea of making the "qualified residential mortgage" definition in the pending risk-retention rule the same as that of the "qualified mortgage" standard.
The mortgage industry wants the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to clarify whether mortgages subject to repurchase demands will lose their qualified mortgage status under the bureaus new ability-to-repay rule.
Fifty-four of the 55 Senators of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. Congress have signed a letter by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson of South Dakota to President Obama in support of the re-nomination of Richard Cordray to lead the CFPB and to express opposition to any structural changes to the bureau. Under the leadership of Director Cordray, the CFPB has gotten high marks from consumer advocates and industry alike for its balanced and prudent approach to rulemaking and enforcement,...
A law firm and related parties that were sued last year by the CFPB for allegedly deceiving consumers via their mortgage loan modification operations have renewed their legal challenge to the appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the bureau, citing the recent ruling that President Obamas recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional. The defendants in CFPB v. Chance Edward Gordon asserted last week that Cordray was appointed on the same day and in the same manner in which the...
Critics of the CFPB and industry opponents of its new ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rulemaking quickly got excited when the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled recently in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board that President Obamas recess appointments of three officials to the NLRB were unconstitutional. Their hope was that the presidents appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB might similarly be invalidated. And perhaps more to the point, they hoped the...