Conversations with Capitol Hill insiders, industry lobbyists and trade group representatives suggest the CFPB is going to face a double-barreled threat from a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the 114th Congress that convenes in January. On the one hand, the GOP is expected to be aggressive in holding numerous oversight hearings on a number of issues having to do with the CFPB. On the other hand, Republicans also are likely to push multiple pieces of legislation relating to the bureau and its rulemaking. A number of tweaks, revisions and technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are expected as well. Elaborating on the legislative front, Joe Pigg, vice president and senior counsel ...

The migration of mortgage servicing rights from “more tightly to less tightly regulated parts of the financial system” should be addressed by regulators, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. The OFR, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act to serve the Financial Stability Oversight Council, said Basel capital requirements have created incentives for banks to sell MSRs to nonbanks. In its annual report, the OFR cautioned that nonbanks aren’t as well regulated as banks. “Mortgage servicing activity and the accompanying risks appear...

If mortgage lenders thought fair lending compliance was tough now, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pending Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rulemaking may well turn enforcement into a hornet’s nest in the very near future, according to one top attorney. “The data to be reported under the CFPB’s proposal is likely to inflame the current fair lending regulatory environment,” said Warren Traiger, counsel at the BuckleySandler law firm, during a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “The Dodd-Frank Act itself specified...

The most recent work plan issued by the CFPB's Office of Inspector General indicates the results of a handful of audits are expected to be completed sometime during the fourth quarter, indicating that either they will be released within the next few months or held over until sometime after the start of 2015. One such review has to do with a joint evaluation of coordination between the CFPB and other regulatory agencies. The inspectors general of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union Administration, and the Department of the Treasury are conducting “an evaluation of the coordination between the CFPB and other regulatory agencies with respect to conducting supervisory activities,” said the OIG’s work plan. ...

Proponents of the non-agency market are concerned that the final rule recently issued by federal regulators setting risk-retention requirements for certain securitized mortgages includes an exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Beginning in late 2015, risk-retention requirements for residential mortgages will apply to newly issued non-agency mortgage-backed securities collateralized by loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages. Issuers or lenders contributing to ...

The FHA and Ginnie Mae will share in the record-setting $16.7 billion settlement between Bank of America, the Department of Justice and certain other federal agencies and six states to resolve claims related to mortgage fraud and toxic mortgage-backed securities. The FHA will receive approximately $800 million and an undisclosed amount for consumer relief from BofA. The bank was accused of falsely certifying poorly underwritten loans for FHA insurance, resulting in huge losses for the agency. It is unclear how much Ginnie Mae’s share would be from the settlement. “As a direct endorser of FHA-insured loans, Bank of America performs a critical role in home lending,” said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch for the Eastern District of New York during the announcement of the global settlement in August. “In obtaining a payment of $800 million and sweeping relief for troubled homeowners, we have not ...

The multi-agency final rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act appraisal-related amendments to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act is expected sometime this month, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s semi-annual regulatory agenda. The amendments made by Dodd-Frank to FIRREA require new minimum requirements to be applied by states in the registration, reporting and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). They further require implementing regulations for new quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs) “designed to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimates produced by the valuation models.” The pending regulations also are...

The Uniform Law Commission’s latest proposal for a model state act that would regulate foreclosure practices as part of an overlay on current state laws is deeply flawed, according to large servicers represented by the Consumer Mortgage Coalition. In a comment letter submitted to the ULC’s Home Foreclosure Procedures Act Committee last week, Anne Canfield, executive director of the CMC, said the draft HFPA could prompt foreclosure delays and would create new assignee liability. The ULC’s committee on the proposed foreclosure law has been working...

The odds are stacked against auto loan ABS issuers being able to significantly lower the amount of credit risk they have to retain in securitizations under the recently adopted risk-retention rule. That’s mostly because of the strict underwriting criteria for underlying loans to qualify for the exemption from the requirement, according to a new ABS research report from Moody’s Investors Service. “Under the final risk-retention rule of the Dodd-Frank Act, auto loan ABS issuers can reduce the financial interest they must retain in their transactions through a qualifying automobile loan (QAL) exemption,” explained report authors Jeffrey Hibbs, assistant vice president, and Henry Chen, an associate analyst. Issuers can put...[Includes one data chart]

The consensus among political observers is that last week’s big Republican wave on Election Day will result in a lot more political bluster from critics of the CFPB on Capitol Hill. However, it’s unlikely to have enough short-term intensity or long-term staying power to effect any big changes that could get past the veto pen of a strongly supportive President Barack Obama. “While there may be a push for the elimination of the CFPB, such a change is highly unlikely given the [Obama] administration’s support for the bureau,” the American Bankers Association said in a post-election analysis. “Expect increased scrutiny in the Senate on the CFPB’s proposals and a continued push to change the structure of the CFPB from a ...