House Financial Services Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R]WV, and Rep. Brad Sherman, D]CA, have been circulating a gdear colleagueh letter in an effort to ratchet up political pressure on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt a gsafe harborh for its pending qualified mortgage rule. gWe believe that the final rule must structure the QM as a strong legal safe harbor, not a rebuttable presumption. Both could still be challenged in court,h the lawmakers said. gHowever, as the Federal Reserve correctly stated in its preamble to the rule...

A handful of Republican members of the U.S. Senate have asked Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to detail how his agency intends to respond to the internal control and accounting systems weaknesses the Government Accountability Office identified in a recent report. Last month, the GAO issued a report entitled, “Management Report: Opportunities for Improvement in the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s Internal Controls and Accounting Procedures,” based on an audit GAO did of the CFPB’s 2011 financial statements. The GAO listed...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the four prudential regulators have released a ¡°Memorandum of Understanding on Supervisory Coordination¡± that clarifies how they plan to coordinate their supervisory activities, consistent with the Dodd©\Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd©\Frank requires the CFPB and the prudential regulators ¨C the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the National Credit Union Administration ¨C to synchronize important aspects of their supervision of insured...

In the case of Brisbin v. Aurora Loan Services LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that a lender’s oral promise to postpone foreclosure is unenforceable; that is, that such a promise is a credit agreement that has to be in writing if it is to be enforceable. Borrower Alison Brisbin filed this lawsuit in Minnesota state court against Aurora Loan Services LLC, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. and Freddie Mac, seeking legal and equitable relief from the foreclosure and sale of her home. She alleged three legal theories for invalidation of the...

The California Assembly and Senate unanimously passed identical six-bill packages known as the California Homeowner Bill of Rights to simplify the state Attorney General’s ability to initiate and conduct statewide grand jury mortgage fraud investigations. The legislation has been designed to guarantee:Basic standards of fairness in the mortgage process, including an end to dual-track foreclosures.Transparency in the mortgage process, including a single point of contact for homeowners....

Conference of State Bank Supervisors. Last week, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry issued for the first time two quarterly publications that together present a comprehensive overview of all individuals, mortgage companies and depository institutions that make residential mortgage loans in the United States. The Nationwide View of State-Licensed Mortgage Entities collects data on companies, branches and mortgage loan originators who are state-licensed or state-registered through the NMLS. The document presents information about...

Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. BDO Consulting Tapped. Joseph Smith, monitor of the national mortgage settlement, has selected BDO Consulting, a division of BDO USA, LLP, as his primary professional firm. BDO will join Smith and his team for a period of three and a half years as they oversee the implementation of the settlement involving 49 states, the U.S. government and five of the nationfs largest banks. gAs I entered the process of engaging the primary professional firm, I knew it would be critical to find the right balance of independence and capacity, Smith said...

A total of 221 rulemaking requirement deadlines mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have passed, through the first five months of the year, according to the latest Dodd-Frank progress report prepared by the Davis Polk law firm. gThis is 55.5 percent of the 398 total rulemaking requirements, and 78.9 percent of the 280 rulemaking requirements with specified deadlines,h according to the report. Further, of the 221 deadlines that have passed, 148 (67.0 percent) have been missed and 73 (33.0 percent) have been met with finalized...

Non-agency mortgage-backed security investors are hoping to influence the implementation of the recent $25 billion foreclosure settlement and ward off similar agreements in the future. They raised concerns this week at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises. “As it stands, it will damage residential MBS markets further,” said Vincent Fiorillo, a trading/portfolio manager at Doubleline Capital, on behalf of the Association of Mortgage Investors. “By adding yet another risk premium to government intervention, it will further...

The Obama administration is on the same page as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator in its desire to shift some of the mortgage credit exposure the government-sponsored enterprises hold to private investors. But exactly how to develop some sort of GSE risk-sharing program continues to bedevil policymakers, a Treasury Department official noted last week. Michael Stegman, a special advisor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, explained in a speech to real estate professionals that the Treasury is “actively engaged in helping to make this [GSE risk sharing] initiative work” but the...