Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has hired an experienced bureaucrat to fill a top political post overseeing the CFPB’s rulemaking, while another senior staffer who has been at the agency since its establishment has left. Mulvaney appointed Thomas Pahl, a former acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, to oversee the agency’s rulemaking. He joined the CFPB in April as a political appointee. The bureau is still under a freeze on hiring career ...

The Senate voted 51-47 to block guidance issued by the CFPB five years ago that said indirect auto lenders can be subject to liability for discriminatory pricing markups. The Congressional Review Act resolution introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, late last month was passed with the help of one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV. The vote generally went along party lines. The five-page bulletin, titled “Indirect Auto Lending and Compliance with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act ...

Altisource Portfolio Solutions disclosed that the CFPB won’t take any enforcement action against the company regarding its relationship with Ocwen Financial Corp., which was sued by the bureau for mortgage misconduct last year. The vendor – started years ago by Ocwen and then spun off – revealed last week that it received a letter from the CFPB on April 3 that the bureau has completed the investigation of the service provider and is currently not recommending any enforcement ...

Mick Mulvaney Wants to Hide Consumer Complaints from Public View. Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney said last week that he wants to shut down public access to the CFPB’s consumer complaint database. “I don’t see anything in here that says I have to have a Yelp run by the federal government,” he said at an American Bankers Association event. Consumer Groups Say the Wells Fargo $1 Billion Fine a Flawed Settlement. The CFPB recently has fined [Includes two briefs] ...

The performance and returns offered by credit card ABS differ significantly by the type of firm issuing the deal, according to a recent analysis by Moody’s Investors Service.

The Community Home Lenders Association called for regulatory streamlining for smaller independent mortgage bankers in a comment letter to the CFPB in response to its request for information on enforcement and supervision. The CHLA, which claims to be the only national association that exclusively represents IMBs, said the bureau should reduce burdens and compliance risks faced by IMBs “through targeted CFPB exam and enforcement exemptions.” Under current law, every nonbank ...

The nature of the CFPB is completely in the eyes of the beholder. In hearings on Capitol Hill last week, Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney was grilled by Democrats while Republicans praised his efforts to reform the bureau. Mulvaney appeared before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee last week to testify on the CFPB’s semi-annual report. The major changes he proposed included: giving Congress authority to approve ...

After rounds of exchanging increasingly nasty letters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, finally got a face-to-face opportunity to question Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of her brainchild – the CFPB. In Mulvaney’s testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee last week, Warren turned her five-minute questioning time into a passionate speech generally claiming that Mulvaney is hurting the American people “Here’s what you don’t get, Mr. Mulvaney – this isn’t about me,” Warren said ...

The CFPB and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are seeking an aggregate of $1 billion from Wells Fargo to settle abuse allegations tied to its auto lending and home mortgage businesses, the megabank disclosed in its first quarter 2018 earnings report late last week. The auto lending violations center on collateral protection insurance policies the bank sold to customers between October 2005 and September 2016. Wells estimated $145 million in cash remediation and $37 million ...

Two payday-lending trade groups filed a lawsuit against the CFPB, seeking to invalidate the bureau’s payday lending rule and challenge its constitutionality. The Community Financial Services Association of America and the Consumer Service Alliance of Texas alleged that the agency’s payday lending rule, titled “Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans,” violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The two groups said the final rule was based on “unfounded” presumptions of consumer harm ...