One of the fascinating things about sifting through all of the 1,200+ industry comments on the CFPB’s TRID clarifying proposed rulemaking as they are posted on the regulations.gov website is to notice the success the American Land Title Association and its membership are having in flooding the agency’s inbox with their concerns. The overwhelming majority of individual comment letters submitted to the CFPB to date all start with the same introductory language, including the reproduction of a typo, as follows: “I am [sic] title insurance professional and I am contacting you today about the proposed rulemaking on TRID. As a settlement agent, it’s important that I am not penalized for compliance errors made by a lender.” This suggests that commenters ...

With the one-year anniversary of the CFPB’s TRID rule now upon us, a new survey from the American Land Title Association finds that a vast swath of the homebuying population is either confused or feels taken advantage of by the calculation of title insurance fees on the new mortgage disclosures. Among the survey’s chief findings, 40 percent of consumers are confused by the new closing disclosure calculation of title insurance. “Under TRID, consumers are disclosed a price for their two title insurance policies that is different than the actual price they will pay at closing,” ALTA said. Also, homeowners want a detailed breakdown of all the costs for a service, the survey found. “At the closing table, homebuyers expect the ...

Official regulatory reviews for compliance with the CFPB’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule are now underway at the bureau and among the prudential regulators, according to top industry attorneys. Speaking during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner with the BuckleySandler law firm in Washington, DC, stated, “We can confirm that, yes, the CFPB and the other regulators, as part of their mortgage origination exams, are including TRID modules and looking at TRID compliance.” He reminded the audience that the bureau has been emphatic that these will be diagnostic reviews. “I haven’t seen anything inconsistent with that with respect to the reviews of our clients out of the CFPB,” Olson said...

The CFPB has formally authorized the collection of expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act information on race and ethnicity, as per the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, in 2017. “At any time from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017, a creditor may, at its option, permit applicants to self-identify using disaggregated ethnic and racial categories as instructed in appendix B to Regulation C, as amended by the 2015 HMDA final rule,” the bureau said in a Sept. 29, 2016, notice in the Federal Register. During this period, a lender permitting applicants to self-identify using these categories shall not be deemed to violate Regulation B Section 1002.5(b). Further, the lender shall also be deemed to be in compliance with ...

CFPB Director Richard Cordray appeared before credit union representatives recently and touted the performance of their industry’s mortgage operations under the bureau’s mortgage rules. “Our first set of mortgage rules have been in place for over two and a half years, and we are seeing great progress,” Cordray told the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. “In 2014, the first year of our ability-to-repay rule on mortgage origination, owner-occupied home purchase mortgages increased by 4 percent, according to HMDA data, and growth was even stronger last year: home purchase mortgages increased by an estimated 13 percent to 14 percent.” In fact, as it turns out, the mortgage industry overall actually did slightly better than Cordray said. According to analysis of ...

Mortgage lending at community banks rose last year and is up over the last few years, according to a joint survey by the Federal Reserve and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. However, that trend may not hold, thanks in part to a drop in demand and to a departure from the sector because of the CFPB’s mortgage rules. “Mortgage lending grew by more than 6 percent for community banks in our survey, which was somewhat higher than the comparable growth rate for all community banks over an overlapping period,” the agencies said. It was also higher than the comparable rate across the entire industry. Over a more-extended period, from December 2013 to March 2016, growth in 1-4 family residential ...

Last week, the CFPB brought a $9 million enforcement action against Savannah, GA-based TMX Finance, the parent company of TitleMax, accusing the company of luring consumers into costly loan renewals by presenting them with misleading information about the deals’ terms and costs. The CFPB said that employees of the auto title lender, as part of their sales pitch for the company’s 30-day loans, offered consumers a monthly option for making loan payments. They then offered consumers a “Voluntary Payback Guide” that showed how to repay the loan with smaller payments over a longer time period....

The CFPB filed a lawsuit in federal district court last month against Prime Marketing Holdings, a credit repair company based in Van Nuys, CA, for allegedly charging consumers a series of illegal advance fees as well as for misrepresenting the cost and effectiveness of its services. According to the bureau’s complaint, Prime Marketing Holdings lured consumers with misleading, unsubstantiated claims ...

SFIG Meets With CFPB Officials to Discuss TRID. Staff and key members of the Structured Finance Industry Group, a securitization trade group, recently met with regulators at the CFPB to discuss the bureau’s integrated disclosure rule known in as TRID and reviewed the trade group’s RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) 3.0 TRID Compliance Review Scope document.... CFPB Releases Updated Exam Procedures for the Military Lending Act. Late last week, the bureau issued the revised procedures its examiners will use in identifying consumer harm and risks related to the Military Lending Act rule, which was updated in July 2015...

The CFPB last month sued five auto title lenders doing business in Arizona – Auto Cash Leasing, Interstate Lending, Oasis Title Loans, Phoenix Title Loans and Presto Auto Loans – for allegedly failing to disclose the annual percentage rate in online advertisements about title loans, in violation of the Truth in Lending Act. “For example, one lender advertised on its website a monthly interest rate but failed to include the legally required annual percentage rate for the loan,” the bureau said....