The DC Circuit Court of Appeals recently ordered PHH Corp. to respond to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s petition for an en banc rehearing in the long-running dispute over alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The lender’s response is due late this week. The court has also invited the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on the constitutional and RESPA questions associated with the case. No timetable was suggested. However, industry legal observers expect the USSG to respond promptly, given the pending change of presidential administrations, and to support the bureau’s positions. Attorneys at the BuckleySandler law firm noted...

Stakeholders voiced support for an FHA proposal to revive the agency’s single-unit approval policy for condominium financing but differed on owner-occupancy requirements. Both items are part of a proposed rule which would give the FHA more wiggle room in formulating its condo rules. The proposed rule’s 60-day comment period ended on Nov. 28. Among other things, the FHA is proposing to reinstate “spot approval” financing on individual units in condo projects that are not currently approved for FHA insurance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development terminated single-unit approvals a few years ago in favor of mandatory condo-project approval. Ultimately, the current approval process proved to be more cumbersome, resulting in many condo projects opting out of FHA. Under the proposed rule, single-unit approvals are limited to a maximum of 20 percent of the units in the ...

Lenders and servicers are likely to see some regulatory relief in the coming years though federal support for the housing market could also be reduced, according to officials at the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA’s Mortgage Action Alliance recently hosted a call with MBA officials providing projections for how the Trump administration and Republican control of Congress will impact the mortgage industry. “Things that were deemed impossible before the election are now in play,” said Meghan Sullivan, the MBA’s Senate Republican lobbyist. She said...

The leading Democrats on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee urged Congressional leaders earlier this month to reject any Republican attempts to use so-called must-pass government appropriations legislation to scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and the CFPB. In a letter sent to Senate and House leaders of both parties earlier this month, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, said they will oppose ideological policy riders to year-end funding legislation aimed at rolling back the consumer protections of Dodd-Frank. “Specially, Congress must not include in end-of-year funding legislation any riders designed to repeal, undermine or delay any provisions of Wall Street reform, including those targeted at the CFPB and the ...

The election of Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress could prompt changes to standards for qualified mortgages, according to industry analysts. QM standards were established by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and took effect in 2014 as part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule. Trump’s financial services policy implementation team said it will work to dismantle the DFA and “replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and ...

Inside-the-Beltway analysts are predicting that financial regulation and new agency leadership posts will be a primary battleground in the incoming Trump administration. The Bipartisan Policy Center said nominating and confirming people to fill seats on financial regulatory agencies, and at the Treasury, will likely be the most important moves made by the new president and Congress. President-elect Trump wants...

Last week’s surprise presidential victory by Republican billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump means some big changes for rulemaking and enforcement activities at the CFPB, to the benefit of the financial services industry, according to the consensus of a variety of analysts and experts. The most likely changes have to do with replacing the bureau’s single director leadership structure a bipartisan commission, and subjecting the agency to the congressional appropriations process. But the tenure of the current director, Richard Cordray, also could come into play, some feel. FBR & Co. analyst Edward Mills and his team predict the agency will have a new director “following the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling [involving PHH Corp.] that allows the president to ...

Mortgage lenders and servicers could see a dramatic change in the regulatory environment following the election of Donald Trump as president with a GOP-controlled Congress. During a campaign of many and sometimes conflicting promises, Trump vowed to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act, which would require Congressional action and, if carried out in its entirety, would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some observers think a more likely outcome is a restructuring of the CFPB itself and curbing of some regulatory and enforcement actions, perhaps with new leadership. Mortgage lending issues were...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development called on its inspector general to reassess estimated financial losses to the FHA insurance fund, which an IG audit attributed to lengthy delays of servicer foreclosures and property conveyances. A recent audit report by the HUD inspector general alleges that HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. According to the IG report, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest on the distressed loans, as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding the properties past their foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. While it was necessary for servicers to pay for property-preservation costs, HUD should not have paid for holding costs, the ...

Last week’s closely-watched appeals court ruling in the wrangling between PHH Mortgage and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is being widely viewed by many as a clipping of the agency’s wings. But expectations about just how restrained the CFPB will be in enforcement actions going forward vary from compliance attorney to compliance attorney. Lawyers with the Stinson Leonard Street law firm pointed out that the director still holds all of the same enforcement power as before, despite the court’s conclusion that the bureau’s leadership structure, with a sole, independent director who can only be removed for cause, is unconstitutional. “For example, the CFPB administrative appeals process is...