The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent actions against an unspecified number of lenders that offer non-qualified mortgages prompted some criticism about how the regulator enforces standards in the ability-to-repay rule. The CFPB cited lenders for originating non-QMs that allowed “alternative income documentation” for salaried borrowers. The CFPB said the products offered by the lenders relied primarily on the assets of each borrower when making an ATR determination ...

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 ...

Industry Groups Urge Congressional Leaders to Pass ‘Tax Extenders’ Legislation. Three industry groups called upon House and Senate leaders to pass “tax extenders” legislation, including two critical tax provisions that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2016. In a joint letter this week, the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders called for the “rapid enactment” of a broad “tax extenders” package, including mortgage-debt forgiveness and tax deduction for mortgage insurance premiums. Passing a legislative package of tax extenders that includes the two provisions would provide much-needed certainty to the residential real estate markets, the letter said. Federal Agencies Propose Rule to Expand Access to Private Flood Insurance. Federal banking and credit union regulators and the Farm Credit Administration have published a ...

Most of the lift in third-quarter mortgage originations came from the tail end of the refinance boom, especially in the agency market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. The government-insured market saw a hefty 21.4 percent jump in mortgage originations from the second to the third quarter as the sector reached an estimated $159.0 billion and accounted for 27.4 percent of total first-lien production. It was the second consecutive record quarter for FHA, VA and Department of Agriculture rural-housing production. The conventional-conforming segment was not far behind...[Includes two data tables]

Implementing the changes that the CFPB is proposing to its TRID rule will involve the deployment of a considerable amount of resources, time and energy, software vendors told the bureau recently. In a comment letter sent to the bureau, DocMagic said that many of the agency’s proposed changes would require a substantial amount of reprogramming by not only technology vendors but also by creditors, investors and settlement agents. “In addition, each programming change would need to be tested to ensure the software integrations among the thousands of companies in the industry work properly,” the company said. DocMagic also pointed out that it operates SmartCLOSE, which is a collaborative closing portal that allows creditors and settlement agents to collaborate to complete ...

Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently expressed support for those portions of the CFPB’s TRID clarifying rulemaking that facilitate their Uniform Closing Dataset, which they developed to support the accurate disclosure of data on the closing disclosure. “The GSEs believe that the bureau should retain the current status of the sample forms, specifically, as model forms under the Truth in Lending Act and standard forms under the rule pursuant to authority under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act,” Fannie and Freddie said in a recent comment letter to the bureau. “Much of the required text of the integrated disclosure is dynamic. It is not contained in the blank forms, and instead is only illustrated when the form is ...

The CFPB’s latest supervisory highlights report provides some Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data collection and reporting reminders for 2017. For starters, beginning with HMDA data collected in 2017 and submitted in 2018, responsibility to receive and process HMDA data will transfer from the Federal Reserve Board to the CFPB. “The HMDA agencies have agreed that a covered institution filing HMDA data collected in or after 2017 with the CFPB will be deemed to have submitted the HMDA data to the appropriate federal agency,” the bureau stated. (The HMDA agencies are the CFPB, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Fed, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.) ...

The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the dispute between the CFPB and PHH Corp. has some significant enforcement implications for the bureau, according to a top compliance attorney. At stake in particular is the bureau’s authority to enforce federal consumer financial protection laws as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) prohibition of unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). In a recent client note, Barbara Mishkin, of counsel in the Philadelphia office of the Ballard Spahr law firm, noted that among the court’s findings was that the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act’s three-year statute of limitations (SOL) applies to the agency’s administrative enforcement actions. “Not only did ...

Vendor Provides TRID-Oriented Video Content. Fast Forward Stories, a Bellingham, WA, provider of “brand-able” video content for the mortgage, title and real estate industries, recently released a download-ready library of 26 mortgage explainer videos on the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID).... ICYMI: Here’s What Happens to Fines, Penalties Levied by the CFPB. A new report from the Government Accountability Office summarizes what happens to the fines and penalties the CFPB imposes on financial institutions for mortgage-related offenses, as follows ...