The House Could Vote on the Reg Relief Bill By Memorial Day. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-WI, last week said the House will take up S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, as currently written and free from amendment. “We’ve got an agreement to be moving different pieces of legislation,” Ryan said. “So, we will be moving [S. 2155]. We’re also going to be moving in the Senate a package of bills that we think [Includes four briefs] ...

The month long deadlock in Congress over the bill to roll back various parts of the Dodd-Frank Act might soon end following an offer by the House GOP to pass the bill in its current form, signaled by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. “I’d be happy to attend multiple signing ceremonies in the White House,” said Hensarling, who has previously expressed his desire to add dozens of House bills to the Senate-passed reg relief bill. In remarks at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, he added ...

Two bipartisan bills recently introduced in Congress would force the CFPB to provide better guidance to the industry and keep the agency from regulating the insurance market. The Give Useful Information to Define Effective Compliance Act, or GUIDE Compliance Act (H.R. 5534), was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, and cosponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-CO. It would compel the CFPB to issue legally binding guidance and establish time ...

Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the consumer bureau created under the Dodd-Frank Act, is serious about changing the agency’s name to “correct” its designation from the CFPB to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Since its creation during the Obama administration, the agency has been branded as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or the CFPB. Mulvaney said its title in the Dodd-Frank Act is the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, or BCFP ...

After rounds of exchanging increasingly nasty letters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, finally got a face-to-face opportunity to question Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of her brainchild – the CFPB. In Mulvaney’s testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee last week, Warren turned her five-minute questioning time into a passionate speech generally claiming that Mulvaney is hurting the American people “Here’s what you don’t get, Mr. Mulvaney – this isn’t about me,” Warren said ...

The CFPB late this month issued two more requests for information – one on the its inherited regulations, and another on bureau guidance and implementation support. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the agency has the rulemaking authority for federal consumer financial laws previously vested in certain other federal agencies. The bureau is considering whether it should amend the regulations or exercise the rulemaking authorities it inherited. This RFI solicits public input on all aspects of ...

Ginnie Mae is considering a risk-sharing pilot that would have private capital absorb some of the potential losses on FHA loans securitized through the agency. In remarks at the Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas recently, Michael Bright, executive vice president and chief operating officer with Ginnie, said no decision has been made on any credit-enhancement structure, as consultations with stakeholders are still ongoing. “We are actively looking at structures we can put in place where we bring in private capital to provide a [partial] guarantee,” explained Bright, Ginnie’s acting president. “The FHA is going be involved in a lot of them.” A risk-share partnership between FHA and private credit enhancers not only would protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund but reduce taxpayer risk as well, observers said. The risk-sharing concept would have private mortgage insurers assuming ...

The Senate on Tuesday voted 67-32 to proceed to debate on legislation that would roll back some mortgage-related provisions from the Dodd-Frank Act while leaving intact most of the rules that swept through the industry following the housing meltdown.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed a motion last week to advance bipartisan legislation that would relieve banks, especially smaller ones, from a handful of CFPB regulations. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, or S. 2155, was passed by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in December 2017. The vote on the motion to proceed will be on Tuesday, March 6. The act, introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, would roll back a number of ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs will require lenders to provide early disclosures to veterans seeking to refinance into a VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan. The new policy aims to ensure that the VA streamline refi loan they sought would actually lower their monthly mortgage payments and is not just a scam for lenders to charge higher fees. Loan churning, or serial refinancing, is at the root of the VA policy change. Churning refers to multiple refinancing of an unseasoned mortgage loan within a very short time, often within six months of origination. Serial refinancing may add more payments and interest to the new loan, prolonging debt repayment, and can strip equity. It also potentially raises the risk of default by the borrower. In addition, the risk of prepayment could affect pricing of Ginnie Mae securities, which could cause lenders to charge higher rates on VA loans to make up for the ...