GSE shareholders rights group Investors Unite took issue with a recent op/ed that suggested the Trump administration is preparing to return to the same housing-finance market that purportedly caused the financial crisis. In a piece penned for the Wall Street Journal, the American Enterprise Institute’s Peter Wallison warned that the Treasury Department is going down the wrong road on GSE reform. However, IU said Wallison's fears that the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Treasury are “marching back to the 1930’s” are unfounded. The group said in a blog posting that conservatives like Wallison will always claim that “statist prescriptions to economic questions are inevitably doomed to failure and almost always make matters worse.”

Departing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen quietly rode off into the sunset this week, with the Fed’s Open Market Committee deciding to keep interest rates unchanged, as expected. The fed funds target range remains at 1.25 percent to 1.50 percent.

The en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Wednesday in favor of PHH Mortgage in its long-running legal dispute with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over issues tied to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year logged 988 servicemember complaints related to the origination and servicing of VA and FHA mortgages. CFPB data showed VA outscored FHA on the number of complaints, 740 to 248, respectively, in 2017. The top five reasons for servicemember complaints were trouble during the payment process, difficulty in paying the mortgage, loan servicing, applying for a purchase mortgage or refinance, and closing a loan. Other complaints were about loan modification and foreclosure, mortgage brokers, incorrect information, settlement process and costs, underwriting/credit decision, credit-reporting company’s investigation of a consumer problem, and improper use of a credit report. Abusive practices related to loan churning might not be reflected clearly in servicemembers’ complaints in 2017 compared to the previous year, but a deeper dive into the ... [Chart]

Legislation that would define loans held in portfolio by smaller banks as qualified mortgages garnered unanimous support at a markup in the House Financial Services Committee last week. H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, was approved on a 55-0 vote. The bill has been kicking around in Congress for years and was modified at the markup to help win support in the Senate. Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, introduced the legislation. He said it will “expand access to ...

While the House Financial Services Committee was busy last week passing a handful of mortgage-related bills, the full House passed legislation that would eliminate additional Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements for smaller banks and credit unions as well as nonbanks.

The CFPB has decided to abandon its pursuit of a group of payday lenders it had accused of misleading consumers about the true extent of the costs associated with its loans, which purportedly carried interest rates as high as 950 percent a year. The agency gave no explanation about its decision to reverse course. An interesting twist is that payday lenders are generally regulated at the state level, and since the lenders in this case happen to be associated with a Native American tribe, they can argue that state laws do not apply to them. Payday Lending Rule Kaput? Also last week, the CFPB indicated it might just deep-six its controversial payday lending rule. “Jan. 16, 2018, is the effective ...

The House Financial Services Committee last week advanced a number of bills for a vote by the full House, including legislation that would expand the qualified mortgage box for smaller entities and exempt many institutions from the rules and regulations issued by the CFPB. One of the bills passed was H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, introduced by Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY. The measure would amend the Truth in Lending Act to allow certain mortgage loans that are originated and retained in portfolio by an insured depository institution or an insured credit union with less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets to be considered as qualified mortgages. Then there was H.R. 1264, the Community Financial Institution ...

Some top compliance attorneys are optimistic that the CFPB under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, or another President Trump appointee, will provide greater regulatory relief and clarity for lenders, and an easing of enforcement activity. Included in that mix could well be a return to the more traditional interpretation the Department of Housing and Urban Development had for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Gerald Sachs, formerly senior counsel for policy and strategy at the bureau and now a partner with the Venable law firm in Washington, DC, told Inside the CFPB recently he anticipates that “mortgage rules would be amended or revised to lessen the regulatory burden, clarify industry concerns or issues, and allow more access to credit.” In addition, ...

It’s likely that mortgage lenders and servicers will get some degree of consideration and accommodation from the CFPB during the Trump administration, thanks to some reviews the bureau is required to make of its major rulemaking as per the Dodd-Frank Act. “The Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFPB to look back and conduct an assessment of each significant rule not later than five years after its effective date,” said former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner in the Washington, DC, office of the Buckley Sandler law firm, during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. The purpose of this assessment is to look at the effectiveness of the rule in meeting its purposes and objectives under the statute ...