The CFPB made a big splash last week – perhaps the last of Richard Cordray’s career at the helm – by issuing its long-awaited payday lending final rule. Many observers watching the director for signs he will resign to run for governor of Ohio have speculated he has been hanging on at the bureau until this rule was formally promulgated. Now that it has been issued, the Cordray departure watch will resume. Under the new rule, there’s a full-payment test. Lenders are required to determine whether the borrower can afford the loan payments and still meet basic living expenses and major financial obligations. For payday and auto title loans that are due in one lump sum, full payment means “being able to ...

Consumer complaints to the CFPB about credit reports jumped in the third quarter, during which the massive Equifax data breach occurred, and year over year, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. Gripes to the bureau leapt by 53.4 percent from the second quarter to the third, our analysis found, and skyrocketed 86.2 percent from year-ago levels. Criticisms about credit reports went from 12,830 in the first quarter of 2017 to 19,685 in the second, to 29,466 in the third. And it may get worse before it gets better, as the bad news about the Equifax hack makes its way further into the general population.Equifax-related complaints rose 131.2 percent during the period ending ... [With exclusive data]

Did DoJ Opine on Ocwen v. CFPB? No One’s Talking. Earlier this year, Ocwen Financial asked Judge Kenneth Marra of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, to invite the U.S. attorney general to appear and participate in the company’s challenge to the constitutionality of the CFPB.... Last Call for Public Comments on TRID ‘Black Hole’ Proposal. The industry has until 11:59 p.m. Oct. 10, 2017, to submit comments to the CFPB regarding its proposal to close the “black hole” associated with the bureau’s integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act....

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders are feeling more confident they will prevail in lawsuits over the Treasury sweep as internal government documents related to a popular case continue to trickle out. Late this week, Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney granted a motion to compel the disclosure of documents that were filed over the summer by attorneys in Fairholme Funds v. the United States. Investors, having grown weary of the drawn-out discovery process, filed a motion in August in hopes of speeding things up by forcing the government to stop what they perceive as delay tactics. Attorneys asked the Federal Claims Court to use the “quick peek” procedure for some documents dating back to May 2012.

Mortgage originations for black and Hispanic borrowers rose significantly faster in 2016 than among whites, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of recently-released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. The HMDA report reveals that a total of $1.956 trillion of home loans were originated last year, an 18.5 percent increase over the 2015 total. Most observers believe that HMDA undercounts total mortgage originations by about 5 percent ... [Includes one data chart]

The election of President Trump and Republican control of Congress initially prompted optimism among MBS and ABS issuers for significant easing of regulatory standards. But with comprehensive legislation from Congress looking unlikely, the focus has shifted to federal agencies, according to speakers at the recent ABS East conference sponsored by Information Management Network. “Expectations have had to be reset post-election,” said Ryan Schoen, a senior financial services analyst at Washington Analysis, a research firm. He said he doesn’t expect much regulatory reform from Capitol Hill. While the House passed H.R. 10, the Financial CHOICE Act, this year, the Senate is taking a more measured approach. “The Senate doesn’t seem...

Two of the most active originators of nonprime loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage test are working on new MBS deals, though market timing is a little uncertain at this point. Mike Fierman, managing partner of the Angel Oak Companies, said the Atlanta-based company has a transaction on the drawing board, but noted that the two recent hurricanes have slowed progress. “As a result … we are taking steps to re-verify the condition of all properties and are offering borrowers assistance if necessary,” said the managing partner. Fierman noted...

Social Finance, a former fintech darling, has been through the ringer of late: cofounder, CEO and “brain” Michael Cagney resigned midmonth amid sexual harassment allegations and other top executives have departed as well, raising questions about the company’s direction – and future. SoFi, as it’s known, was a “disruptor” of sorts in the financial services arena, refinancing student loans made to millennials at cheaper rates and then securitizing the paper. Over the past 18 months, the privately held startup has been...

S&P Global ranked as the top rating service in the non-mortgage ABS market during the first half of 2017, with strong market shares in the major asset categories, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. S&P rated $69.54 billion of ABS issued in the first half of the year, roughly 60.1 percent of total issuance by dollar volume. For all of 2016, the company finished second in ABS ratings with a 53.6 percent share of the market. S&P had...[Includes two data tables]

Nonprime lenders defended mortgages underwritten with borrowers’ bank statements after criticism of the loans by Fitch Ratings. Steven Schwalb, CEO of Angel Oak Home Loans, a nonprime lender that offers bank-statement mortgages, noted that the loans measure borrowers’ cash flow more precisely than the tax returns used for traditional income verification. “We’re comfortable with the risk of that borrower,” he added, during a panel discussion at the ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network last week in Miami Beach. Bank-statement mortgages account...