It should come as no surprise to mortgage originators and servicers that the CFPB has significantly ramped up its examination activity of their operations over the last year. Data provided exclusively to Inside the CFPB from the bureau per a Freedom of Information Act request reveal there was a 70 percent increase in mortgage-related exams in 2015 from the prior year. As the accompanying chart illustrates, nonbanks have been having an even more active degree of scrutiny from the bureau than have depository institutions. Nonbank originators have seen an 85.7 percent increase in exam activity year over year, versus depositories, which have seen a rise of “only” 42.9 percent during that period. And it is even worse for nonbank servicers. ...

The CFPB’s latest monthly consumer complaint report finds that borrowers struggling to keep up with their mortgages are still having problems with their mortgage servicers. “Today’s report shows that consumers are still running into too many dead ends and obstacles in resolving issues with their mortgage servicer,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The bureau will continue to press to make sure that people can get the right information and the timely help they need.” Among the issues the bureau identified, 51 percent of complaints involved problems borrowers faced when they had difficulty making payments. “Consumers complained of prolonged loss mitigation review processes in which the same documentation was repeatedly requested by their servicer,” said the CFPB. Homeowners also said they ...

The CFPB recently reopened the public comment period on whether mortgage servicers should be required to provide periodic statements for borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy. Specifically, the bureau is seeking public input on the consumer testing it did on its proposed sample periodic statement forms.Back in January 2013, the bureau issued its two mortgage servicing final rules. The agency clarified and revised those rules during the summer and fall of 2013 in two packages of amendments. Then in October 2013, the CFPB clarified compliance requirements in relation to successors in interest, early intervention requirements, bankruptcy law, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), through an interim final rule (IFR) and a contemporaneous compliance bulletin. Among other things,...

The CFPB should consider increasing the asset threshold limit to be considered a “small creditor” under its ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, from $2 billion to $10 billion, so that more small lenders may take advantage of the regulatory relief a recent interim final rule provides, according to the American Bankers Association. The interim final rule, which was issued March 25, 2016, expanded the availability of certain special provisions for small lenders operating in rural or underserved areas. The proposal amends some of the definitions in the ATR rule, as per the Helping Expand Lending Practices in Rural Communities Act of 2015, which was enacted Dec. 4, 2015. Under the interim rule, small creditors – or banks that made no more than 2,000 ...

Mortgage Warehouse Volume at Horizon Bancorp Declines in First Quarter, TRID Remains an Issue. Horizon Bancorp announced recently that its mortgage warehouse lending efforts were down in the first quarter of 2016. The bank had $119.88 million in mortgage warehouse loans on its balance sheet at the end of the first quarter of 2016, down 17.2 percent from the previous quarter and down 33.0 percent from the first quarter of 2015.... Flagstar Boosts Originations and Income in 1Q16, Is Comfortable with TRID. Flagstar Bancorp reported an increase in originations and net income for the first quarter of 2016 with company executives noting that the bank is comfortable with the TRID mortgage disclosure requirements...

A lack of formal guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding TRID mortgage disclosures won’t prevent rating services from placing ratings on new non-agency MBS. The rating services are even willing to rate new deals before the Structured Finance Industry Group releases standards for the handling of TRID issues by third-party due diligence firms. However, issuers and investors appear to be less comfortable with liability from the rule the CFPB implemented in October combining the disclosure requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Save for a $331.95 million jumbo MBS issued by Two Harbors Investment at the end of March, no firm has issued a deal that includes loans subject to TRID. On March 18, SFIG proposed...

Mortgage trading desks the past few months have seen a noticeable increase in whole loan trading tied to seasoned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, according to traders interviewed this week by Inside MBS & ABS. Jason Eisendrath, director of loan sale strategies for Mortgage Delivery Specialists, said the sellers include not only money-center banks, but credit unions. “The credit unions, in particular, are holding a lot of [government-sponsored enterprise] paper,” he said. MDS is a part of Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp., New York. It’s...

The alternatives to credit ratings mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act aimed to address contributors to the financial crisis have their own challenges, according to a new report from the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. John Soroushian, a research analyst for policy studies at the OFR, noted that before the financial crisis, rating services had an incentive to inflate ratings for MBS, ABS and other investments to expand their business. He said rating services were “key enablers” in the creation of MBS and collateralized-debt obligations. “Without ratings, it would have been...

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee concluded its regularly scheduled meeting earlier this week and, to no one’s surprise, decided yet again to keep its interest rate powder dry for the time being. The people who parse FOMC statements for a living derived some nuanced significance from a few wording changes, but are split on whether and when there will be an increase this year. The Fed noted that labor market conditions have improved further even as growth in economic activity appears to have slowed. “Growth in household spending has moderated, although households’ real income has risen at a solid rate and consumer sentiment remains high,” said the U.S. central bank. “Since the beginning of the year, the housing sector has improved further but business fixed investment and net exports have been soft.” Meanwhile, inflation has continued...

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has proposed technical corrections and changes to its codified accounting handbook for private companies, including revisions to guidance relating to FHA and VA loans as well as transfers and servicing of financial assets. The proposed updates respond to suggestions by stakeholders and affect a wide variety of topics in the Accounting Standards Codification, which was established in September 2009 as a comprehensive source of authoritative generally accepted accounting principles used by the private sector. Among other things, a proposed amendment to Subtopic 860-20, Transfers and Servicing – Sales of Financial Assets would add...