The regulatory relief bill which last week became law makes changes to the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, and attorneys expect that more major changes will come from the bureau’s reassessment of the qualified-mortgage standards. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act will allow financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets to offer mortgages that don’t meet all the requirements of the QM rule, such as ...

Senate Democrats are asking for more information from Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney about the reorganization of the bureau’s student protection unit and ending public disclosure of the consumer complaint database. Sen. Sherrod Brown, OH, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray, WA, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, led the group ...

The CFPB payday lending rule has survived Congress, but Acting Director Mick Mulvaney suggested that the bureau will work with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to change it. “The bureau will strive to expand consumer choice, and I look forward to working with the OCC and other partners on efforts to promote access and innovation in the consumer credit marketplace,” Mulvaney said in a statement. The acting director applauded an OCC ...

Treasury Official Sees Major Impact from Single Security. A key Treasury Department official suggested that issuers of non-agency MBS may someday participate in the common securitization platform being developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Craig Phillips, counselor to the Treasury, said the industry has made a lot of progress toward the launch of the single security that is scheduled for June 2019. “Industry preparedness is about an eight or nine on a scale of 10,” he said during remarks at this week's secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association in New York. Phillips characterized the...

A recent announcement by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to seek public comment on its 2013 disparate-impact rule is an opportunity for both HUD and the industry to clarify the liability issues it raises, said compliance experts. On May 10, HUD announced it would formally seek public input on whether the disparate-impact regulation is in tune with the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2015 decision in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The HUD rule affirmed the use of disparate impact to establish liability for violations of the Fair Housing Act. It lays out a three-step approach to determining FHAct liability. The first step requires the plaintiff to demonstrate that a practice or a policy has a discriminatory effect on a protected class of persons. According to the rule, liability may be established even if the ...

California continues to account for the largest share of non-agency jumbo originations but it lost some market share in 2017, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Some $317.29 billion of jumbos were originated in 2017, down 9.7 percent from the previous year. The analysis is based on originations of first-lien, single-family mortgages, with loan-limits determined at the county level. Originations of ... [Includes one data chart]

As soon as next week, the House could vote to approve a regulatory relief bill that already passed the Senate. Among numerous other provisions, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act would grant qualified mortgage status to certain loans held in portfolio by smaller banks even if the mortgages would otherwise be non-QMs. Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also said ... [Includes four briefs]

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney announced last week that he plans to restructure an office that aims to help student loan borrowers. Many consumer advocates worried that the change will strip the office of all functions except for consumer education. In a memo obtained by Inside the CFPB, Mulvaney announced to all staffers that the Office of Students and Young Consumers will be folded into the Office of Financial Education. Both offices are part of the bureau’s Consumer Education ...

PHH Corp. decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a lower court ruling that effectively overturned the CFPB’s controversial interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under former Director Richard Cordray. The lender’s lawsuit also unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the CFPB. In January, the en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with PHH on the RESPA components of the dispute, invalidating ...

Mortgage lenders spent a considerable amount of money implementing the qualified-mortgage rule, and many are not keen about a major overhaul, according to a survey by Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Some 54 percent of 122 respondents to the survey favored no or only modest changes to QM rules. There was little variation between banks and independents, or large and small lenders. However, lender attitudes on regulatory change vary significantly with the size of ...