The law professors believe the CHOICE Act would take the mortgage industry back to the recent past, which was characterized by risky lending and lax regulatory oversight.
Sam Kazman, general counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says the hearing involves fundamental issues about the basic structure of our government…
CFPB Director Richard Cordray, in an unusual move, attended the weekly caucus meeting of the Democrats in the House of Representatives last week. That prompted his chief GOP antagonist, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, to say Cordray’s appearance shows that Democrats use the CFPB as a political war machine. “Everyone knows Mr. Cordray will likely leave the CFPB soon and pursue political office in Ohio again, but his attendance at what amounts to nothing more than a Democrat pep rally shows just how partisan and politicized he and his supposed ‘independent’ agency truly are,” the Republican said. According to Hensarling, liberal elites in Washington, DC, want to keep the bureau unaccountable to the American people so ...
The Congressional Budget Office last week issued a detailed analysis of the fiscal aspects of H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, estimating the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $24.1 billion over the 2017-2027 timeframe. “Direct spending would be reduced by $30.1 billion, and revenues would be reduced by $5.9 billion,” the budget office said. Most of the budgetary savings would come from eliminating what’s known as the Orderly Liquidation Fund and from changing how the CFPB is funded. The budget office also estimates that, over the 2017-2027 period, and “assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts,” implementing the bill would cost $1.8 billion. The CHOICE Act was introduced earlier this year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, ...
As a vote by the full House of Representatives nears on H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, dozens of law professors from around the country wrote congressional leadership to oppose provisions of the bill that would gut the CFPB. In their letter, the legal academics took particular issue with Title VII of the legislation, which would subject the CFPB to the regular congressional appropriations process and eliminate the bureau’s rulemaking, supervisory and enforcement authority (including that over unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, or UDAAP). “Title VII of H.R. 10 seeks to kill the CFPB by a thousand cuts,” the professors said. “Historically, Congress has accorded all federal bank regulators independence to insulate their decisions from industry and political ...
The Financial Services Roundtable advised the Trump administration that the structure of the CFPB needs to be changed, and that the agency should revise a handful of its key mortgage rulemakings, most notably the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule and the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, or TRID. The FSR’s call came in a detailed response to President Trump’s Executive Order 13777, “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” issued earlier this year, directing the Treasury Department to conduct an assessment of financial regulations to evaluate how they align with the White House’s core principles of financial regulation.In terms of the bureau itself, the industry organization said the governance structure ...
The Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Servicers Working Group asked the CFPB for guidance on how to comply with bankruptcy-related provisions when a confirmed successor-in-interest, who is not legally a borrower, has filed a bankruptcy petition. Under Regulations X and Z, these successors will be considered borrowers. Their inquiry came in response to the bureau’s request for comment on its plan to assess its 2013 mortgage servicing rules. One question the industry representatives had is whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to the mortgage servicing rule’s early intervention requirements.They note that Section 1024.39(c) of Reg X provides some exemption from early intervention written notices if any borrower on the loan sends an FDCPA cease-communication notice “with ...
The CFPB has stepped back into the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act enforcement ring by probing Zillow over issues related to co-marketing. The probe of the company’s co-marketing initiative was disclosed to the public earlier this month by Zillow CFO Kathleen Philips during the company’s first quarter earnings conference call with investors. “Over the past two years, the CFPB has been reviewing our program for compliance with RESPA,” Philips said. “Recently, the CFPB requested additional information and documents from us as part of their evaluation, which we are working with them on,” she added. “We believe our co-marketing program has, and continues to, allow agents and lenders to comply with the law while using our product.” This could be another ...
The CFPB had numerous lapses in protecting sensitive, confidential enforcement information, according to a new report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. The objective of the OIG’s evaluation was to determine whether the bureau’s Office of Enforcement has effective controls to manage and safeguard access to its confidential investigative information (CII). “We found that the Office of Enforcement’s sensitive information has not always been restricted to Office of Enforcement employees who needed access to that information to perform their assigned duties,” the OIG said. The watchdog said it found that 113 unique users had access to at least one electronic application when it was no longer relevant to the performance of their assigned duties. “These users continued to have ...
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