Most of the small-entity participants in the review processes run by the CFPB before it came out with four major mortgage rules felt they were hurried by the process and unsatisfied with the final results, the Government Accountability Office said in a recent report. The GAO took a look at the experience of the 69 Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) panel participants involved in evaluating the likely effects of the CFPB’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule (TRID), the mortgage servicing regulation, its loan originator compensation rule, and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act regulation. Of the 57 small-entity representatives GAO interviewed, “two-thirds stated not enough time was allotted to discuss at least one of the topics on the panel agenda ...

One mortgage lender recently inquired of Michael Goldhirsh, director of legal and regulatory compliance for the Lenders Compliance Group, as to whether the definition of “application” in the CFPB’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule (TRID) triggers or otherwise affects reporting under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. In a recent blog posting, he replied: “The short answer is that receipt of some or all of the six pieces of TRID application information does not necessarily trigger an application for purposes of HMDA reporting.” Goldhirsh went on to explain that Regulation C defines an application for HMDA reporting purposes as an oral or written request for a home purchase loan, a home improvement loan, or a refinancing that is made in accordance with ...

Student loan borrowers are encountering difficulties when they try to file an application for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, according to the CFPB’s midyear update on student loan complaints, which was released late last week. Since 2009, the vast majority of borrowers with federal student loans have a right under federal law to set their monthly student loan payments based on their income. For borrowers who are unemployed or earn low wages, these IDR plans provide for a “payment” as low as $0 per month.“Many borrowers depend on student loan servicers to inform them about the availability of IDR options and for processing borrowers’ enrollment in these plans,” said the bureau. “This report observes that borrowers encounter obstacles when submitting ...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. last week released on its website updated technical assistance videos on the CFPB’s Ability-to-Repay/qualified mortgage rule. “The updated videos provide financial institution management, compliance officers and staff with resources for a better understanding of the current requirements of the ATR and QM rule,” it said. ... CFPB Director Richard Cordray last week responded to two members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who had recently pressed him to consider exempting small community banks and credit unions from as much of its rulemaking as possible...

Almost three months after word leaked out that Angel Oak Capital Advisors was working on a second nonprime MBS, the transaction has yet to come to market. Sources close to the company, maintain that a deal is still in the works – it’s just a matter of when. The company had planned to sell a roughly $150 million MBS backed by nonprime residential loans funded by affiliates Angel Oak Home Loans, a retail shop based in Atlanta, and Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, a wholesaler that originates through loan brokers. Presently, the Angel Oak firms are churning out...

Federal banking regulators should make a number of adjustments to proposed net stable funding ratio requirements, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group and other industry participants. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued the NSFR proposed rule in April, following standards set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Comments on the proposed rule were due late last week. The NSFR addresses...

JPMorgan Chase is a step closer to settling a dispute with Deutsche Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over certain mortgage securitization agreements in connection with the government’s takeover of failed mortgage lender Washington Mutual. According to Chase’s most recent 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm, Deutsche Bank and the FDIC have signed a term sheet to resolve pending litigation brought by the German bank against Chase and the FDIC in relation to WaMu as well as Chase’s outstanding indemnification claims pursuant to the terms of the purchase-and-assumption agreement with the FDIC. The term sheet is subject...

A federal judge rejected efforts by the government to keep a new batch of official memos and other documents from being disclosed in the ongoing legal war over the terms of the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Margaret Sweeney released a new set of documents that included a brief excerpt of former White House housing policy expert Jim Parrott’s deposition from January, a presentation from the Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2008 and several memos dating back to 2008 and 2012. Sweeney rejected...

The proposed rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau addressing the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule will likely help the non-agency market, according to industry participants. However, there’s also some frustration that the CFPB didn’t do as much as it could have to address cures and assignee liability. Industry attorneys note that if enough comments are submitted on the issues, the CFPB might make further changes to TRID. The changes proposed by the CFPB ...

In the event of a severe economic crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could need a bailout of up to $125.8 billion, according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency stress test released this week. The test of severely adverse scenarios, required by the Dodd-Frank Act for companies with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion, took place in March and is based on Fannie and Freddie portfolios as of Dec. 31, 2015. The bailout would be needed on an incremental basis and would also depend on the treatment of the government-sponsored enterprises’ deferred tax assets. Under this hypothetical economic scenario, situations include...