PHH Mortgage – and the rest of the mortgage industry, for that matter – came out with a clear and decisive win against the CFPB last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the $109 million disgorgement order imposed on the lender by the director of the bureau, Richard Cordray. PHH argued that the CFPB incorrectly interpreted RESPA Section 8 to bar so-called captive reinsurance arrangements involving mortgage lenders such as PHH, their affiliated reinsurers and private mortgage insurers. The lender also asserted that, in any event, the CFPB departed from the consistent prior interpretations issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and that the bureau then retroactively applied its new interpretation of ...

With the public comment period about to close on the CFPB’s TRID clarifying proposed rule, a few industry voices of support have emerged among the comment letters submitted so far by rank-and-file industry representatives. For instance, Debbie Ingle, executive director of mortgage and real estate lending for Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, commended the bureau for issuing the proposed amendments to clarify the federal mortgage disclosure requirements under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “The proposed amendments are beneficial and will provide mortgage lenders with clarification and improved guidance,” said Ingle. “The amendments serve as a good first step to help mortgage lenders resolve the complex implications of the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID) ...

Earlier this month, the CFPB’s controversial TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule – TRID – turned one year old. In an email exchange with Inside the CFPB, former bureau official and TRID architect Richard Horn, who now heads his own law firm in Washington, DC, addressed the progress the industry has made in adopting the rule, and the challenges that remain. Horn began by saying he thinks the industry has generally done a great job with the extremely difficult task of implementing TRID. Also, “I am very pleased that some of the recent industry surveys of consumers after TRID have shown that consumers are experiencing the intended benefits,” he said. “There are challenges still, but it’s a good sign that the CFPB issued the ...

One year into the TRID rule, the mortgage industry has gotten used to the new disclosure landscape. But until consistent legal precedents are established by the courts, true certainty will be elusive, and that likely means years will have to transpire before the rule’s full impact will be known. “I think the industry as a whole has met the challenge and settled into the TRID process, which everyone knows was radically different than what it replaced,” said Donald Lampe, a partner in the financial services group in the Washington, DC, office of the Morrison & Foerster law firm. “And so I see the industry settling in to the use of these new forms and the changes that these disclosures imposed ...

Now that mortgage lenders have had a year to digest the CFPB’s controversial TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule, smaller financial institutions have learned to cope to a certain degree, but there are still challenges and costs. That’s the perspective of Ron Haynie, senior vice president of mortgage finance policy and executive vice president of mortgage services for the Independent Community Bankers of America. “I guess the good news is the market didn’t seize up and mortgage closings didn’t come to a screeching halt or average turn times didn’t get out to 60 days plus,” he told Inside the CFPB recently. “While things slowed down in the beginning, average turn times seemed to have settled around 46 days. And while that’s still ...

Comments on TRID 2.0 Are Due Tuesday. Representatives of the mortgage industry have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016, to submit their comments to the CFPB regarding its TRID 2.0 clarifying proposed rule.... CFPB Issues Revised TRID Guide to CD, LE Forms. The CFPB recently published an updated guide to the TRID loan estimate and closing disclosure forms, which was last revised in July 2015.... Bureau Releases Updated TRID Compliance Guide for Small Entities. Earlier this month, the CFPB put out a revised small entity compliance guide for the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, which was last updated in July 2015....

Documents revealed to plaintiffs’ attorneys in a prominent GSE shareholder case is causing some to question what President Obama was told about Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s profitability when the Treasury sweep took place in 2012. Judge Margaret Sweeney released her 80-page opinion last week and it gave more insight into her decision. While only a short summary sentence of each of the 56 documents is available now, it does show communication between high-level officials at the Treasury Department, Federal Housing Finance Agency and the White House regarding the Treasury’s sweep of Fannie and Freddie profits.Investors Unite, a GSE shareholder group, noted that the government might have been trying to keep the documents hidden because...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has included more details regarding how it will monitor the examinations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in its annual performance plan for fiscal year 2017, released last week. Over the past year, the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General has blasted the regulator for not completing targeted examinations on time and inadequate follow-up on what were deemed matters requiring attention (MRAs). The new plan noted that the GSEs will continue to address MRAs by submitting remediation plans to FHFA for review. Each non-objected remediation plan will include a timeframe for completion within the fiscal year the MRA was issued or beyond. FHFA added that Fannie and Freddie management are responsible for...

The Structured Finance Industry Group is preparing to publish standards that aim to increase transparency for representations and warranties on new non-agency MBS, according to officials at the trade group. Eric Kaplan, a managing partner at Ranieri Strategies, said SFIG will release one or two “green papers” this year as part of the group’s RMBS 3.0 effort to revive issuance of non-agency MBS. Kaplan detailed the plans along with Daniel Goodwin, director of mortgage policy at SFIG, at the recent ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network. SFIG has released...

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Margaret Sweeney’s ruling, released last week, raises new questions about the validity of government efforts to keep thousands of other documents secret in a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholder case over the net worth sweep imposed by the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to shareholder advocates. In Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, shareholders argue that the net worth sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ profits is unfair, and they have scored significant victories in getting access to various written communications to prove their claim. The recent batch of documents Sweeney released to the plaintiff’s attorneys show...