Certain potential changes could materially affect origination volume and determine the government-sponsored enterprises’ direction going forward, according to analysts. One of those changes could have a significant impact on the FHA market. Wells Fargo Securities analysts recently looked at three potential developments in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac sphere and evaluated their effects on the broader mortgage market. Two of those potential changes – loan limits and guarantee fees – are controlled directly by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, while the third relates to the temporary GSE qualified-mortgage exemption, or “QM patch,” which could affect the FHA market. All three factors loom over the mortgage landscape as the FHFA expects a new director in January 2019, who is likely to be more right leaning and could shift the focus back to shrinking the ...

The CFPB is expected to limit the use of disparate-impact analysis under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as the agency intends to rewrite the ECOA rule, according to attorneys tracking the issue.

The CFPB recently settled with a Tennessee-based payday lender for debt-collection practices, finding some of its activities were “abusive.”

A dozen state attorneys general asked the CFPB to withdraw or make substantial modifications to its proposed trial disclosure program.

The CFPB said it will focus on ability-to-repay provisions as it tries to overhaul its controversial rule on payday, title and high-cost installment lending.

Democrats on Capitol Hill and state attorneys general are continuing their campaign to get the CFPB to enforce the Military Lending Act.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin a new rulemaking on qualified mortgages to conform to Dodd-Frank reform act mandates. Observers say the move is simply housekeeping, since the previous QM interim final rule (IFR) requirements were rendered moot with the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act back in May. The new law, also known as the Dodd-Frank reform act, superseded the previous rule’s seasoning and recoupment requirements for VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. Specifically, the act removed the category of rebuttable presumption for IRRRLs deemed as QM under the interim final rule. It also imposed new requirements that were not considered at the time the IFR was issued. The VA did not say whether changes were made ...

Originating home loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage standard remains a small, but rapidly growing market that’s looking more attractive at a time when agency mortgage lending is slowing. But many lenders are holding back because of a lack of clarity about non-QM compliance. Changes to the ability-to-repay rule may be necessary to move the non-QM niche to the next level, experts say. An estimated $21.5 billion of expanded-credit mortgages ...

A recent court ruling that Zillow’s co-marketing program does not violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is helpful to the industry, but lenders still need guidance from the CFPB to confirm the standards set by previous rulings, said compliance attorneys. Richard Andreano, a partner at Ballad Spahr, told Inside the CFPB that it is positive for lenders that a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging Zillow’s co-marketing program. The bureau itself ...

CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is resisting outside pressure to dump the controversial political appointee who now leads the agency’s fair lending activities. Eric Blankenstein has come under fire for racially tinged blogs he posted in 2004, where he stated that using the n-word may not necessarily be racist and a great majority of hate crimes were hoaxes. Senate Democrats are pushing Mulvaney to explain how Blankenstein was hired to be head of …