The House Could Vote on the Reg Relief Bill By Memorial Day. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-WI, last week said the House will take up S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, as currently written and free from amendment. “We’ve got an agreement to be moving different pieces of legislation,” Ryan said. “So, we will be moving [S. 2155]. We’re also going to be moving in the Senate a package of bills that we think [Includes four briefs] ...

The conversation on GSE reform has shifted heavily as we approach midyear, having gone from optimism on congressional legislation to discussions on administrative options. And two Washington, DC-based think tanks recently offered their thoughts on reform and both point to 2019. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said last week that housing-finance reform will not happen this year. Karen Petrou, managing partner with Federal Financial Analytics, called this the “death knell” for GSE reform in this Congress. And she added that he didn’t seem sorry to deliver it. “With Mel Watt’s term as Federal Housing Finance Agency director coming to a close, Treasury...

Investors arguing that the net worth sweep was unjust hit a roadblock late last week when the Seventh Circuit Court ruled that they can’t claim GSE profits post-conservatorship.This latest ruling also led the Federal Housing Finance Agency to try to influence the outcome in similar cases against the agency. The shareholders sought to overturn a 2017 ruling in which a federal judge went against them and granted the government’s motion to dismiss the complaint.In this case, Christopher Roberts, et al., vs. the Federal Housing Finance Agency et al., similar to other shareholder complaints, investors argued that the...

About 70.4 percent of the home loans originated in 2017 were sold to secondary market investors, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week. According to the preliminary HMDA data made available by federal regulators, lenders reported $1.738 trillion in first-lien single-family mortgage originations in 2017. HMDA data cover about 96 percent of the market. The biggest buyers were Fannie Mae ... [Includes one data chart]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay requirements yielded higher costs for lenders and revealed flaws with vendors’ loan originations systems, according to a recent survey of lenders. The ATR rule and standards for qualified mortgages took effect in early 2014. Strategic Mortgage Finance Group surveyed 122 lenders about the regulation earlier this year. Lenders estimated that ATR/QM added $139 per loan to their ongoing origination costs. Only $44 of ...

The month long deadlock in Congress over the bill to roll back various parts of the Dodd-Frank Act might soon end following an offer by the House GOP to pass the bill in its current form, signaled by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. “I’d be happy to attend multiple signing ceremonies in the White House,” said Hensarling, who has previously expressed his desire to add dozens of House bills to the Senate-passed reg relief bill. In remarks at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, he added ...

The CFPB last week finalized a proposed amendment to its “Know Before You Owe” rule, fixing what is commonly known in the industry as the “black hole” issue. The final rule adopts a July 2017 proposal with only minor, technical changes. In broad terms, it gives lenders more flexibility in issuing revised closing disclosures that comply with the complex disclosure requirements mandated by Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act ...

Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has hired an experienced bureaucrat to fill a top political post overseeing the CFPB’s rulemaking, while another senior staffer who has been at the agency since its establishment has left. Mulvaney appointed Thomas Pahl, a former acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, to oversee the agency’s rulemaking. He joined the CFPB in April as a political appointee. The bureau is still under a freeze on hiring career ...

The Senate voted 51-47 to block guidance issued by the CFPB five years ago that said indirect auto lenders can be subject to liability for discriminatory pricing markups. The Congressional Review Act resolution introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, late last month was passed with the help of one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV. The vote generally went along party lines. The five-page bulletin, titled “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ...

Altisource Portfolio Solutions disclosed that the CFPB won’t take any enforcement action against the company regarding its relationship with Ocwen Financial Corp., which was sued by the bureau for mortgage misconduct last year. The vendor – started years ago by Ocwen and then spun off – revealed last week that it received a letter from the CFPB on April 3 that the bureau has completed the investigation of the service provider and is currently not recommending any enforcement ...