The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee this week concluded its 53rd consecutive meeting without raising interest rates, issuing a statement that provided no hint whatsoever that such an increase would occur this year, notwithstanding previous commentary and the wishes of many on Wall Street. “To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the committee today reaffirmed its view that the current 0 to 0.25 percent target range for the federal funds rate remains appropriate,” said the Fed in its now-boilerplate language. In determining how long to maintain this target range, the FOMC said...

The House Financial Services Committee this week marked up legislation to block pay raises for the top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to extend qualified-mortgage status to loans originated for an institution’s retained portfolio. H.R. 1210, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, introduced by Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, would extend qualified-mortgage protection from litigation and enforcement actions for mortgages originated and retained in portfolio by depository institutions. “This would incentivize private-sector risk retention,” said Barr. Rep. John Carney, D-DE, said...

The Government Accountability Office wants federal regulators responsible for reviewing the qualified mortgage and qualified residential mortgage rules to make sure they consider specific metrics and analytic methods. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the other federal agencies are slated to issue a review of the QM rule in January. The review of the QRM standard, part of a mortgage-securitization rule, won’t happen until 2019. So far, the regulatory agencies have identified...

State regulators have proposed changes to Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry licensing forms and call reports that would be a mixed bag for lenders, addressing some concerns while adding new reporting requirements. The proposal from the State Regulatory Registry, a subsidiary of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, comes two months after an initial request for comments regarding NMLS licensing forms and the mortgage call report (MCR). Comments on the proposal are due Aug. 20. State regulators stuck...

The CFPB last week finalized its earlier proposal to extend to Oct. 3, 2015, the effective date for its controversial integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act: the so-called TRID. “The bureau believes that moving the effective date may benefit both industry and consumers with a smoother transition to the new rule,” the CFPB said in announcing the finalization. “The bureau further believes that scheduling the effective date on a Saturday may facilitate implementation by giving industry time over the weekend to launch new systems configurations and to test systems.” Further, “A Saturday launch is also consistent with industry plans tied to the original effective date of Saturday, August 1.” The ...

The CFPB last week ordered Citibank and its subsidiaries to provide an estimated $700 million in relief to eligible consumers harmed by allegedly illegal practices related to credit card add-on products and services. Citibank and its subsidiaries also will pay $35 million in civil money penalties to the CFPB. Roughly 7 million consumer accounts were affected by Citibank’s deceptive marketing, billing, and administration of debt protection and credit monitoring add-on products, said the bureau. A Citibank subsidiary also deceptively charged expedited payment fees to nearly 1.8 million consumer accounts during collection calls. More specifically, the bureau’s allegations of deceptive marketing include charges that Citi misrepresented the cost and fees for coverage, misrepresented the benefits of some products, used illegal practices ...

The CFPB last week brought an $18.5 million enforcement action against Discover Bank and its student loan affiliates for engaging in allegedly illegal private student loan servicing practices. The bureau’s enforcement action “demonstrates how Discover failed at providing the most basic functions of adequate student loan servicing for a portion of the loans that were transferred from Citibank,” said the bureau. Thousands of consumers encountered problems as soon as their loans became due and Discover gave them account statements that overstated their minimum payment, the CFPB said. Also, “Discover denied consumers information that they would have needed to obtain tax benefits and called consumers’ mobile phones at inappropriate times to contact them about their debts.” The CFPB concluded that the ...

The CFPB and the Department of Justice resolved a $24 million enforcement action against American Honda Finance Corp. last week with a settlement that will put new measures in place to address discretionary auto loan pricing and compensation practices. The joint CFPB/DOJ investigation concluded that Honda’s policies resulted in minority borrowers paying higher dealer markups. “Honda violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by charging African-American, Hispanic, and Asian and Pacific Islander borrowers higher dealer markups for their auto loans than non-Hispanic white borrowers,” said the bureau. “These markups were without regard to the creditworthiness of the borrowers.” Honda’s policies also injured thousands of minority borrowers, according to the CFPB. “Honda’s discriminatory pricing and compensation structure meant thousands of minority borrowers ...

The CFPB has filed a complaint and a proposed $5.2 million consent order in federal court against Sacramento, CA-based Student Financial Aid Services for allegedly illegal sales and billing practices.The company has operated websites and related call centers where it offers fee-based assistance to consumers filling out the federal government’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid. According to the CFPB’s complaint, when consumers entered their payment information for certain financial advisory services, SFAS began to bill them for an annual subscription without their knowledge or consent. These recurring charges typically ranged from $67 to $85 each year and were renewed annually, according to the bureau. The company enrolled consumers in these annual subscriptions without adequate disclosures and imposed recurring ...

The CFPB recently won some and lost some when it comes to the debt-collection arguments it advanced in CFPB v. Frederick J. Hanna & Associates, which the bureau initiated in July 2014. According to the CFPB’s complaint, the firm and its three principal partners – Frederick Hanna, Joseph Cooling and Robert Winter – ran a debt-collection lawsuit mill that used illegal tactics to intimidate consumers into paying debts they may not have owed. Between 2009 and 2013, the firm filed more than 350,000 debt-collection lawsuits in Georgia alone, but the attorneys only spent less than a minute reviewing each suit, according to the CFPB. In its motion to dismiss, Hanna & Associates argued that the claims brought by the CFPB focus only...