The CFPB recently announced its plan to review and evaluate the effectiveness of its ability-to-repay/ qualified mortgage rule, as per the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, and is soliciting interested parties for their input. “We are asking the public to comment on our plan, to suggest sources of data, and generally to provide information that would help with the assessment,” bureau officials said in a blog posting revealing the plan. They added that the agency views the pending review and evaluation as an opportunity. “Conducting the assessment will advance our knowledge of the benefits and costs of the key requirements of the ATR/QM rule,” said the officials. “The assessment will also provide the public with information on the mortgage lending market, ...

The full House of Representatives is scheduled to vote sometime this week – perhaps as early as Tuesday evening – on H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017, Inside the CFPB has learned. The exact day the vote will occur had not been set as of press time, but it will likely take place after the House Rules Committee formally provides a structured amendment process for the legislation. That is slated to take place sometime in the evening on Tuesday, June 6. H.R. 10, introduced earlier this year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, was passed out of committee early last month. Prospects in the Senate are slim, however, because the Republicans just do not have the votes ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced it will assess the effectiveness of its ability-to-repay/qualified-mortgage rule, as per the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, and is asking for public input. The CFPB will examine the impact of major provisions of the rule on mortgage costs, origination volumes, approval rates and subsequent loan performance. A special focus is on self-employed borrowers, those with seasonal or part-time income and borrowers with income from assets. Another topic for review is...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is destined for major changes whether they come via the federal courts or Congress, but which one has the bigger impact on the agency’s future is a question that seems to divide industry attorneys. In an analysis, Jerome Walker, a bank regulatory compliance attorney with the Duane Morris law firm in New York, writes it is likely that courts are a greater threat to the CFPB at this point than Congress. Although the House Financial Services Committee has approved legislation that would make major changes at the bureau, the legislation’s future in the Senate is uncertain. “Recent court cases, however, have proven...

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, author of H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, this week expressed uncertainty about how much of his controversial alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act might be able to garner bipartisan support in the Senate. But he said he is hopeful and willing to negotiate anything, while articulating faith in a strategy that pushes both a “short game” and a “long game” when it comes to making the major changes he envisions. During a public policy discussion at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC, Hensarling suggested that Democrats haven’t stepped up to the plate to help smaller banks. “I hear my friends on the other side of the aisle say nice things about wanting to do regulatory relief for community financial institutions,” the congressman replied. “But I just never see the legislation. I don’t quite see the follow-through. “I haven’t given up...

The Federal Home Loan Banks have become too reliant on short-term funding of longer-term assets, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt. Speaking at the FHLBank Annual Director’s Conference this week, Watt reiterated his concern from a year earlier that over time a heavy reliance on short-term funding can strain the system’s capacity to issue short-term debt at attractive spreads. He acknowledged...

CFPB Director Richard Cordray, in an unusual move, attended the weekly caucus meeting of the Democrats in the House of Representatives last week. That prompted his chief GOP antagonist, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, to say Cordray’s appearance shows that Democrats use the CFPB as a political war machine. “Everyone knows Mr. Cordray will likely leave the CFPB soon and pursue political office in Ohio again, but his attendance at what amounts to nothing more than a Democrat pep rally shows just how partisan and politicized he and his supposed ‘independent’ agency truly are,” the Republican said. According to Hensarling, liberal elites in Washington, DC, want to keep the bureau unaccountable to the American people so ...

The Congressional Budget Office last week issued a detailed analysis of the fiscal aspects of H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, estimating the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $24.1 billion over the 2017-2027 timeframe. “Direct spending would be reduced by $30.1 billion, and revenues would be reduced by $5.9 billion,” the budget office said. Most of the budgetary savings would come from eliminating what’s known as the Orderly Liquidation Fund and from changing how the CFPB is funded. The budget office also estimates that, over the 2017-2027 period, and “assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts,” implementing the bill would cost $1.8 billion. The CHOICE Act was introduced earlier this year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, ...

As a vote by the full House of Representatives nears on H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, dozens of law professors from around the country wrote congressional leadership to oppose provisions of the bill that would gut the CFPB. In their letter, the legal academics took particular issue with Title VII of the legislation, which would subject the CFPB to the regular congressional appropriations process and eliminate the bureau’s rulemaking, supervisory and enforcement authority (including that over unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, or UDAAP). “Title VII of H.R. 10 seeks to kill the CFPB by a thousand cuts,” the professors said. “Historically, Congress has accorded all federal bank regulators independence to insulate their decisions from industry and political ...

The Financial Services Roundtable advised the Trump administration that the structure of the CFPB needs to be changed, and that the agency should revise a handful of its key mortgage rulemakings, most notably the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule and the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, or TRID. The FSR’s call came in a detailed response to President Trump’s Executive Order 13777, “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” issued earlier this year, directing the Treasury Department to conduct an assessment of financial regulations to evaluate how they align with the White House’s core principles of financial regulation.In terms of the bureau itself, the industry organization said the governance structure ...