As part of the CFPB’s new push for additional reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the bureau, in conjunction with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, has released a new, fairly robust online tool to enable interested parties to explore mortgage data in ways previously unavailable. “Users now have more flexibility in how they sift through the data. They can filter it, download it, create summary tables, and share the results,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The tool uses a format that is...

Mortgage lender representatives urged the CFPB recently to delay its project to address the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process until after its integrated disclosure rule under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act takes effect and is fully digested by the industry. “The new rule is intended to greatly simplify consumer disclosures, eliminate surprises at closing and broadly improve the consumer experience,” said the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable of the...

House Republicans had planned on voting on a package of CFPB-related legislation last week, but were forced to regroup after deliberations related to the federal government’s debt limit took center stage. An aide to Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee told Inside the CFPB that the GOP leadership plans to push another vote by the end of the month. It looks like the dominant legislative vehicle will be H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act, legislation which reflects the texts of several...

The CFPB is now dedicating one third of its current staff to supervision, making it clear that exams will be a major focus this year. For many in the mortgage arena, that level of scrutiny will be a new experience – especially for nonbanks. But even for those who’ve been subject to federal examination for years or decades, the CFPB exam process will be, in some cases, like starting from scratch and the focus – on consumer impact rather than soundness of the entity – is altogether different. One area on the bureau’s short list is...

In another sign that more regulatory scrutiny could be brought to bear upon financial institutions that market bank accounts, prepaid and debit cards and other products to college students, the CFPB recently highlighted concerns about how such products are marketed and how transparent the related agreements between financial institutions and colleges and universities are. Recently, the bureau alerted financial institutions about what it thinks is the potentially risky practice of not readily disclosing arrangements with colleges and universities to...

Financial institutions that provide deferred-interest credit cards offered by health-care providers appear to be in the CFPB’s crosshairs, likely as a result of complaints from consumers. Earlier this month, the bureau posted a blog on its website spelling out four things it said consumers should know about health-care credit cards.“Recently, many patients facing medical procedures have seen their health-care providers suggest deferred-interest rate credit cards as a payment option,” the CFPB said. “Unfortunately, health-care providers...

Most private student-loan servicers are trying to elevate their game, but are meeting with mixed results so far, the CFPB found. Back in November, CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra wrote to a number of private student-loan servicers to learn more about their payment processing policies, ostensibly “in order to inform the CFPB’s market monitoring and consumer education initiatives.” However, any time the bureau finds weaknesses or problems, it is sure to follow up, one way or the other. Among the key findings of the voluntary disclosures...

Federal regulators have yet to finalize their qualified residential mortgage rulemaking, but housing finance experts are already trying to figure out how lending is going to be affected by the interplay of the QRM rule and the qualified mortgage standard as per the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. As the new lending environment unfolds, the liability risks associated with non-QM and QRM loans is one of the things that is particularly troublesome to some. “The worse-case scenario that I worry about is that we see a repeat of what we saw in...

A number of industry trade groups told the CFPB and other financial regulators that they generally agreed with the regulators’ use of voluntary self-assessments in the interagency diversity standards proposed last fall. However, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Independent Community Bankers of America offered some cautions on vendor diversity standards and confidentiality of reports. Although some commentators had called for incorporating diversity assessments...

The Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General will be initiating some sort of audit or evaluation of the reasons the renovation costs for the CFPB’s headquarters building in Washington, DC, have soared to more than three times their original estimate, Inside the CFPB has learned. The OIG responded to a request from Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-NC, a key subcommittee chairman within the House Financial Services Committee structure. “We have received a request from Chairman McHenry of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and...