Two significant issues related to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act have received fresh attention at the Supreme Court, which is expected to make landmark rulings next year. The U.S. Solicitor General and a group of state attorneys general filed briefs in Freeman v. Quicken Loans, a case in which the high court will likely determine the ability of the mortgage lending industry to decide what to charge borrowers at the point of origination. RESPA Section 8(b) provides that “no person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split or percentage of...

Federal financial regulators are still sifting through stacks of criticism about their controversial risk-retention proposal for the MBS and ABS market and have not yet decided whether to start over again with a new proposed rule, as most industry groups have urged them to do. The agencies are also getting a lot of push from Capitol Hill to re-think the original proposal, which was released in late March. “I am very concerned that if the qualified residential mortgage definition being worked out by regulators isn’t broad enough, it could hurt the housing market, especially...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency provided a status update on the efforts that 12 bank and thrift mortgage servicers are making to comply with the foreclosure practice consent orders they were issued in the spring, a review that documents the extent to which servicing reforms are being implemented.As such, the document may foretell some of the kinds of industry “best practices” that will form the basis of national servicing standards one day.For example, each servicer has established policies and procedures for providing single points of contact to assist borrowers throughout the loan modification and foreclosure processes.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.Federal Reserve Board.National Credit Union Administration.Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Big Institutions Under CFPB Oversight. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve Board, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced together that banks, thrifts and credit unions with more than $10 billion in total assets will be subject to direct CFPB supervision, examination and enforcement with respect to federal consumer financial protection laws.

The House Financial Services Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee plans a hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 6, on the examination relief bill (H.R. 3461) that panel Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, and ranking member Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, introduced on Nov. 17. H.R. 3461, among other things, would require more timely examination reports; more information about the facts the agency relied upon to make its exam decisions; and more precise, consistent and understandable classification standards…

It would be better for the mortgage market, for taxpayers and for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if Congress did not dawdle in promulgating housing finance reform and clarified the future role, if any, the two government-sponsored enterprises will have, the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie told lawmakers this week. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Charles Haldeman called on Congress to take action as the continued lack of clarity about Fannie and Freddie’s future is harmful to...

Commercial banks will have to do more than just look at the credit rating on a security before deciding it qualifies as a potential investment under a proposed rule issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency this week. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is scheduled to consider a similar proposal next week. Under marching orders from the Dodd-Frank Act, bank regulators have been removing references to external credit ratings from a variety of regulations – even though banks themselves don’t agree with the change. Most commenters on earlier proposals from...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week reported that 12 bank and thrift mortgage servicers are pressing ahead to comply with the foreclosure practices consent orders issued in April, but it will take all of next year to complete the necessary steps. “Work is well under way on the actions necessary to comply with the consent orders,” the OCC said in a report. “Efforts to correct deficiencies in foreclosure processes, management oversight and internal audit are furthest advanced.” To forward the process of identifying and providing remediation to...

The regulatory burden of the Dodd-Frank Act creates pressure on community banks to hire additional compliance staff instead of customer-facing staff, reducing resources that could be directly applied to serving a bank’s customers, resulting in fewer mortgages getting made, slower job growth and a weaker economy, according to Steve Wilson, the American Bankers Association’s immediate past chairman. The Dodd-Frank provisions he cited as particularly troubling for community banks include risk retention, higher capital requirements, narrower qualifications for capital, and doubling the size of the deposit insurance fund – taking as much as $50 billion out of the earnings and capital of the industry in the process. “The Dodd-Frank Act also requires 20 new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting obligations,” Wilson said in a speech last week. “These and other reporting requirements will add considerable compliance costs to every bank’s bottom line.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released for public comment two alternative versions of a new mortgage disclosure form that would effectively combine the current disclosure requirements of the final federal Truth in Lending Act and HUD-1 Settlement Statement forms, the second phase of the CFPB’s “Know Before You Owe” program. “We are in the process of replacing these two different forms with one disclosure that is easier to use, consistent with our Congressional mandate in the Dodd‐Frank Act,” the bureau said. “We want to give consumers a clear understanding of the final loan terms and costs in one place. This will make it easier to ensure that you receive the loan product you applied for at the cost you agreed to. And we want to give lenders and settlement agents a well‐organized form to make compliance easier.” An “industry tool” asks industry representatives what their preferred format would be for their customers to use at closing to describe final loan terms and closing costs, while a “consumer tool” asks consumers which form they would prefer to be given at closing to describe those items.