Total consumer complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rose 34 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, but gripes about home mortgages fell 29.3 percent from year-ago levels, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB, an affiliated newsletter. The strong improvement from last year was driven largely by a 46.8 percent plunge in grievances about loan modifications. But complaints about servicing in general were up 21.4 percent from the first quarter of last year, while the other five mortgage-related categories were lower. Gripes having to do with loan application or other origination-related issues fell 26.7 percent from the first quarter of 2013. The number of gripes that were responded to in a timely manner fell...

BofA's mortgage-related settlements led to a loss for the lender in the first quarter of 2014.

The surge in recent years of Federal Home Loan Bank advances by big banks presents safety and soundness risks, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Office of Inspector General.

DBRS suggests it's likely that most of the U.S. population won't be able to qualify for a mortgage any time soon...

Mortgage-related complaints to the CFPB as of the first quarter of 2014 were down significantly compared with the previous year, though they increased compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.

The FHFA and Chicago settled a legal battle that started in November 2011 regarding maintenance and fees for vacant properties.

Bank of America will have to pay $727 million in restitution to consumers who were harmed by practices related to its credit card add-on products, under the terms of a consent order announced last week by the CFPB. That is the single largest amount of money yet returned to consumers in such an action by the bureau. BofA also agreed to pay a $20 million civil money penalty to the CFPB. The bureau went after BofA on two fronts: allegedly deceptive marketing practices as well as unfair billing practices. The marketing practices at issue had to do with two credit-card payment-protection products, “Credit Protection Plus” and “Credit Protection Deluxe.” “The bureau found that the telemarketing scripts Bank of America used...

In a statement submitted for the record to the House Financial Services Committee last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said it remains concerned that the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule could unduly tighten mortgage credit for a significant number of creditworthy families who seek to buy or refinance a home. To improve the rule, the MBA rattled off a handful of suggestions, the first of which was to establish cure procedures. “The CFPB should adopt rules allowing lenders to cure calculation errors and other processing mistakes made while attempting to meet the qualified mortgage requirements,” the trade group said. “Without such procedures, lenders will be forced to avoid transactions at the boundaries of the points-and-fees cap, debt-to-income limits and the annual percentage...

More than 80 percent of bankers expect mortgage credit is going to be constricted because of the CFPB’s new mortgage rules, which took effect in January, according to the results of the latest Real Estate Lending Survey from the American Bankers Association. More specifically, in discussing the impact of the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rules on credit availability in the market generally, 41 percent said there will be a measurable reduction in credit availability across all mortgage lending segments. Forty percent said there will be a measurable reduction in credit availability in the non-QM lending segments only, and 20 percent said there will be no measurable impact on mortgage lending levels, regardless of QM or non-QM classification. When asked to characterize the...

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee have formally requested Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, conduct a full committee hearing into potential discriminatory policies and practices that affect employees not only at the CFPB but in other federal financial regulatory agencies as well. Ranking Member Maxine Waters, D-CA, announced the request at a hearing recently conducted by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which looked into allegations of employee discrimination and retaliation at the CFPB. Waters echoed sentiments of fellow Democrats, who expressed concern earlier that the hearing was focused on discussing ongoing claims by a single employee instead of the larger issue of employee discrimination and the retaliation and harassment that whistleblowers experience. Dwelling on the employee’s...