More than three years after standards for qualified mortgages took effect, investors in the non-agency MBS market appear to be getting more comfortable with products that fall outside its bounda-ries. JPMorgan Chase is preparing to issue a large MBS backed by non-QMs that’s similar to deals from several nonbank issuers.

The CFPB recently told a U.S. District Court it opposes Ocwen Financial’s motion to submit the Department of Justice’s brief filed in another case in lieu of the department’s inaction when it comes to weighing in on Ocwen’s dispute with the bureau. Ocwen recently asked the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, for permission to file a supplemental memorandum (an earlier brief by the DOJ in PHH Corp. v. CFPB as to the unconstitutionality of the bureau) in defense of the company’s motion to dismiss the consumer regulator’s case against it. The common thread in both cases is that Ocwen and PHH similarly assert that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional. During the Obama administration, the ...

Last week, the House Financial Services Committee approved several bills that would override the CFPB on some of its key mortgage-related rulemakings. The voting included the passage of H.R. 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act of 2017, which would exclude from the ability-to-repay calculation of points and fees insurance and taxes held in escrow and fees paid to affiliated companies as a result of their participation in an affiliated business arrangement. The bill passed by a recorded vote of 46 ayes and 13 nays. Jaret Seiberg, an analyst with Cowen Washington Research Group, said in a client note, “This would permit lenders to work with affiliate title insurers without worrying about the points-and-fees cap.” Another measure that survived the legislative gauntlet ...

Last week, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee endorsed a handful of legislative provisions related to mortgage financing, including a measure that tackles one aspect of the CFPB’s integrated-disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.One section of the still-to-be-named bill would remove the three-day waiting period required for the combined TILA/RESPA mortgage disclosure if a creditor extends to a consumer a second offer of credit with a lower annual percentage rate. It also would express the sense of Congress that the CFPB should provide clearer, authoritative guidance with respect to certain issues. A separate section deals with escrow requirements for certain consumer credit transactions. These provisions would provide an ...

More Industry Advice for a Post-Cordray CFPB. Competitive Enterprise Institute financial policy expert John Berlau said last week, “Richard Cordray’s impending resignation as director of the CFPB is long overdue.... Growth of CFPB Leveling Off. The total number of employees at the CFPB came to 1,668 for fiscal year 2017, up 20 positions from the year before, according to the bureau’s latest financial statements for the last two years.... GAO Signs Off on CFPB Financial Statements. The Government Accountability Office audited the CFPB’s financial statements for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, and found they are “presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.”...

Originations of higher-priced mortgages increased significantly in 2016 compared with the previous year, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The analysis excluded government-insured mortgages, multifamily loans and home-improvement loans. Some $28.61 billion of non-government-insured higher-priced mortgages were originated in 2016, up 28.9 percent from the previous year ... [Includes one data chart]

There are many unpredictable variables and economic factors outside the control of the Federal Reserve, which makes it hard to project the impact of winding down the U.S. central bank’s historic investment in agency MBS. But economic experts at Fannie Mae are cautiously expressed anticipating greater volatility, an inevitable financial shock and potential changes in the Fed’s strategy as markets evolve.

As the mortgage industry prepares for a substantially expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data collection and reporting environment from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, compliance experts are getting a clearer sense of some of the biggest challenges lenders will face – most notably on the technology front as well as fair lending scrutiny.

Nearly two dozen mortgage industry groups wrote to members of the U.S. House of Representatives recently, urging them to support a bipartisan measure that would tweak the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule to enable title insurers to disclose available discounts and accurate title insurance premiums to homebuyers. Currently, the bureau does not permit title insurance companies to disclose available discounts for lender’s title insurance on the government mandated disclosure forms. “This creates inconsistencies in mortgage documents and causes confusion for consumers,” said the industry organizations...H.R. 3978, the TRID Improvement Act of 2017, introduced last month by Reps. French Hill, R-AK, and Ruben Kihuen, D-NV, would end this confusion by amending the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to require the CFPB ...

Multiple industry trade groups recently wrote to every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to enact legislation that would loosen up the points-and-fees cap under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule and its qualified mortgage standard. At issue is the bipartisan H.R. 1153, the Mortgage Choice Act (not to be confused with the far more comprehensive, and controversial, Financial CHOICE Act). H.R. 1153 was introduced in February by Reps. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, Ed Royce, R-CA, Steve Stivers, R-OH, and David Joyce, R-OH, along with Gregory Meeks, D-NY, David Scott, D-GA, and Mike Doyle, D-PA. H.R. 1153 would revise the Truth in Lending Act Section 103(bb)(4) definition of points and fees to foster greater consumer choice in mortgage and settlement services under ...