CFPB, Justice Department Engaged in Fair-Lending Investigations. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division was engaged in 10 joint fair- lending probes with the CFPB at the end of 2014 as the result of referrals from the bureau, according to a recently released report to Congress. In five of the probes, the parties were in the midst of pre-suit negotiations, the report indicated. “In addition, seven joint investigations with the CFPB, which were initiated before 2014, are ongoing,” the report continued.The division received a total 18 referrals in 2014: 15 from the CFPB and three from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Of those 15 referrals from the bureau, seven had to do with issues of race/national origin, three with ...

FFIEC Issues Revised Interagency Examination Procedures for Compliance with the TRID. The Task Force on Consumer Compliance of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council recently put out new interagency examination procedures for the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), as implemented by Regulation Z, and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), as implemented by Regulation X. These procedures reflect CFPB amendments to Regulations Z and X published in the Federal Register in December 2013 and February 2015. Most of the changes to the procedures relate to the integrated mortgage disclosure requirements under TILA and RESPA, commonly referred to as the “TRID” requirements. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Bulletin 2015-27 makes available on the OCC website the revised interagency ...

To attract large investors, the Treasury Department suggests that non-agency MBS include a deal agent with a fiduciary duty. “Under corporate law, directors must discharge two primary fiduciary duties: duty of care and duty of loyalty,” said Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury on housing finance policy, in a speech late last week. “In the context of private-label securitizations, these duties seemed sensible and logical to us.” He used...

New lenders that specialize in loans that don’t meet the government’s qualified-mortgage standards continue to draw up blueprints and raise capital – or at least try to – but very few of them are banking on securitization as a take-out strategy. However, all that may change with the launch of LendSure Financial Services, a San Diego startup headed by a handful of veterans from the subprime industry of yesteryear, including Jim Konrath, Stu Marvin and Joe Lydon. According to one non-agency investor briefed on LendSure’s plans, securitization is...

The timing of any hike in interest rates from the U.S. central bank has grown more uncertain in recent weeks, amid signs of significantly slower economic growth – a reality that was reflected in the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee reaffirming the status quo after its two-day meeting in Washington, DC, concluded mid-week. Hours before the FOMC’s statement was released, the Commerce Department announced that first-quarter gross domestic product slowed to a crawl of just 0.2 percent, compared with a 2.2 percent increase in the fourth quarter. “Information received since the FOMC met in March suggests...

The Treasury Department is making progress corralling various participants in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market, slowly prompting changes aimed at attracting large investors. The effort started nearly a year ago, when Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury on housing finance policy, first proposed the issuance of a benchmark transaction in November. “The benchmark transaction process has reset relationships among transaction parties and is ...

Republican leaders in the Senate and the House plan to press ahead with legislation to provide regulatory relief for mortgage lenders, especially for small community banks. It’s likely that provisions to automatically designate mortgages held in portfolio as qualified mortgages will be included in a legislative package the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will mark up sometime in the middle of May. And Republicans might use...

Non-mortgage ABS production jumped sharply higher in the first quarter of 2015, with $50.08 billion of new issuance, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. First-quarter issuance was up 38.1 percent from the previous three-month period, although early 2015 was down 6.3 percent from a year ago. The two strongest segments of the market were vehicle finance ABS, which accounted for 46.7 percent of issuance during the first quarter, and business loan ABS, which chipped in another 30.9 percent of new production. Ford Motor Credit had...[Includes three data charts]

Two new reports from Fitch Ratings, taken together, indicate a modest weakening in the collateral backing U.S. auto ABS deals is continuing, with perhaps a temporary reprieve thanks to short-term cash flow positives for consumers, mostly tax refunds and lower gasoline prices. Still, the overall outlook is positive. U.S. prime auto ABS collateral has been marginally weakening in the last few years, most recently because of amped-up competition among auto finance companies, Fitch said in a report out this week, based on transactions issued between 2007 and fourth-quarter 2014. “The quality of prime auto loan securitized pools was...

A final rule issued this week by federal regulators setting standards for oversight of appraisal management companies goes against the concerns raised by many industry participants. The rule implements standards required by the Dodd-Frank Act, among other issues. The Consumer Mortgage Coalition, the National Association of Appraisal Management Companies and other industry participants had raised concerns about the rule proposed in April 2014. The proposal established minimum standards for AMCs – which are intermediaries between appraisers and lenders – and allowed states to establish requirements that go beyond the minimum standards. The final rule adopts...