Late last month, the House Financial Services Committee passed a handful of industry-sought measures related to the CFPB, including H.R. 3192, the Homebuyers Assistance Act. The legislation would provide a hold harmless period until Feb. 1, 2016, for the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule that is slated to take effect Oct. 3, 2015. Attorney Richard Andreano, a partner in the mortgage banking unit at the Ballard Spahr law firm, said in a client note that prospects in the Senate, however, are somewhat murky. “An existing bill, S. 1711 (which is a companion bill to H.R. 2213), would provide for a TRID rule hold harmless period until Jan. 1, 2016,” he said. “The bill was introduced on July 7, 2015, and ...

Consumer complaints about their student loan debt obligations rose slightly at the six-month mark, up 4.8 percent versus the previous year, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. Month over month, gripes were down 4.0 percent. There was a good bit of variation in the numbers, company to company, during both time periods. But there was also a good bit of consistency within individual companies, with six of the top 10 rising or falling according to both metrics. For instance, top-ranked Navient saw consumer criticisms fall 6.8 percent quarter over quarter and 14.8 percent at the mid-year point compared with last year. Meanwhile, at second-ranked Genesis Lending, consumer complaints spiked 29.9 percent QOQ and skyrocketed more than 1,000 ...

Subsequent to the publication deadline for the previous issue of Inside the CFPB, American Honda Finance Corp. submitted a statement in response to the enforcement action brought against it late last month by the CFPB and the Department of Justice.“AHFC strongly opposes any form of discrimination, and we expect our dealers to uphold this principle as well,” said the lender. “We firmly believe that our lending practices have been fair and transparent. “AHFC has a difference of opinion with the CFPB and the DOJ regarding the methodology used to make determinations about lending practices, but we nonetheless share a fundamental agreement in the importance of fair lending,” the company added.In cooperation with the CFPB and the DOJ, AHFC...

CFPB Sends Questionnaire to Debt Collection Entities. The CFPB recently sent a questionnaire to a variety of debt collection firms, creditors and service providers in an effort to help the bureau “better understand operational costs and other factors associated with debt collection.” Noting that participation is voluntary, the consumer regulator said industry responses “will inform the bureau’s analysis of the costs and benefits of potential new rules related to debt collection.” The questionnaire asks about basic activities and operational costs of collecting debt, including, for example, questions about vendors used for activities such as dialers or print mailings, maintaining data about consumer accounts, and furnishing information to credit bureaus. “After we have received the questionnaire responses, we plan to reach ...

A growing number of issuers are engaging in servicing transfers prematurely or making changes to their servicing platforms, causing problems for Ginnie Mae’s monthly pool-level and loan-level reporting. A Ginnie Mae issuer “transfers servicing” when it shifts in-house servicing to a subservicer, moves servicing from one subservicer to another, or relocates servicing in-house. Effective servicing as well as accurate and timely reporting are critical to Ginnie’s mortgage-backed securities program, the company said in recently issued guidance on servicing transfers. The new policy guidance would ensure that issuers have the capacity and oversight controls at all times to meet their obligations under the Ginnie Mae MBS program. Currently, issuers are required to obtain Ginnie’s approval before engaging in any servicing transfer with a subservicer or from one subservicer to another. Effective immediately, any issuer that wishes to ...

The fastest-growing sectors of the mortgage market during the second quarter of 2015 were jumbo loans and government-insured production, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. The conventional-conforming segment remains the biggest piece of the mortgage market, accounting for 52.8 percent of originations during the second quarter. Back in early 2013, when refinance activity accounted for three of every four new home loans, the conventional-conforming share was 68.1 percent. Lenders generated...[Includes two data charts]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have declared war on several decades’ worth of business practices as it encourages lenders and real estate service providers to end their “marketing service agreements” with each other. Moreover, according to industry officials, the CFPB is just getting started on its crackdown as it tries to eliminate both legal and under-the-table business arrangements where a lender – in theory – provides something of value to vendors that it’s conducting business with. The first sign that the mortgage industry is concerned...

The Blackstone Group this week finally completed its purchase of all or parts of PMAC Lending, a California-based lender that will help the investment banking firm establish itself in the red-hot West Coast mortgage market. Although the publicly traded Blackstone has maintained a cone of silence regarding its talks with PMAC, employees of the Chino Hills lender began reporting the news themselves through various social media outlets, including Facebook. At least two other nonbank lenders are in talks with Blackstone, one in California and one in Pennsylvania. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined...

The House Financial Services Committee has passed a number of mortgage-related bills designed to ease lenders’ liabilities by simplifying rules, reducing complexity and compliance costs, while a streamlined regulatory relief package gained new momentum in the Senate. Late last week, the committee reported out the following bills: H.R. 1210, (Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act); H.R. 1941 (Financial Institutions Examination Fairness and Reform Act); and H.R. 3192 (Homebuyers Assistance Act). H.R. 1210 would modify...

Ginnie Mae said new MBS issuers need to gain some experience in the agency’s program before they are allowed to do servicing transfers, but some newly approved issuers have attempted to do so. Roy Hormuth, director of single-family securitization at Ginnie Mae, said there has been some misconception among new issuers about doing a co-issuance program in their first month in the Ginnie program despite the fact that they are not ready for it. New issuers must first demonstrate that they can successfully manage the servicing themselves before they can transfer servicing immediately, he said. In a co-issuance transaction, a company sells...