Lenders in the manufactured housing sector have taken issue with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the agency issued a white paper on the industry. “These consumers may be more financially vulnerable and benefit from strong consumer protections,” said Richard Cordray, the CFPB’s director. “The bureau is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to responsible credit in the manufactured housing market.” The Manufactured Housing Institute said it was pleased that the CFPB ...

MountainView, a firm known mostly for the market it makes in mortgage servicing rights, is branching out into non-QM lending, but company officials cautioned that its effort will start small. Moreover, a spokesman for the firm clarified that loans acquired through its new “Peak Program” will meet the ability-to-repay rule requirements, including the non-QM loans. “We expect...

The vast majority of community banks plan to continue to offer mortgages even though increased regulation is limiting business, according to a survey conducted by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. Rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remain a primary concern, although many community banks already offer loans outside of the standards for qualified mortgages. “Banks continue to see opportunity in residential mortgage lending but have a mixed view of non-QM lending,” according to the report jointly compiled with the Federal Reserve. “Assessing the ability to repay and QM standards against current exposures, bankers generally identified a low level of nonconformance, suggesting the rules may generally be in line with bank practices while still requiring significant changes in operations.” Some 64 percent of the 884 community banks surveyed said...

Before members of Congress left the nation’s capital for their final push before the November elections, diverse efforts were underway for making changes to aspects of the qualified mortgage definition under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, either through legislation or persuasion. Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5461, a package of legislation which includes the text of H.R. 3211, the Mortgage Choice Act, which passed the House unanimously in June. The legislation would make it easier for mortgages to fit under the ATR rule’s cap on points and fees by providing equal treatment to title charges, regardless of whether or not a consumer chooses a title company affiliated with the lender. “This provision is narrowly focused to ...

Representatives of some of the leading lenders of non-qualified mortgages are optimistic about the prospects for the future of the space, seeing opportunity where many see only risk. Brian Simon, chief operating officer for New Penn Financial, answered the question: Why open a non-QM market? “I think, as everyone is aware, the current credit environment has shut out many potential homeowners,” he said during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter. “There’s a narrow credit box in the current mortgage market, which means that the people who were hardest hit in the housing crisis have little access to credit.” New Penn Financial has decided to market products that allow access to affordable credit. “That just ...

Did Apple Place Itself Within CFPB’s Purview? Some legal experts think the recent rollout of mobile payment technology by Apple Inc. might have put the consumer technology heavyweight in the CFPB’s regulatory crosshairs. Georgetown Law Professor Adam Levitin said in a recent blog that Apple may have unwittingly become a regulated financial institution through the release of its Apple Pay service. “Basically, I think Apple is now a ‘service provider’ for purposes of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which means Apple is subject to CFPB examination and UDAAP [unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices],” he said. Levitin then proceeded to walk readers through a number of legal definitions to bolster his argument. Vivian Kim, an associate at the Dykema ...

At least a dozen or so national lenders – almost all of them nonbanks – have rolled out lending programs for loans that don’t meet the qualified mortgage standard, and none of them expect to issue a mortgage-backed security this year. Moreover, most aren’t so certain they will be able to issue a security next year either, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about it. New Penn Financial has created...

There’s plenty of consumer demand for loans that don’t meet the standards for qualified mortgages, according to industry participants. But more than a year after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau established standards for non-QMs, lenders and investors are still trying to determine the liability posed by the mortgages. Jay Lown, president of Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment, a real estate investment trust managed by Stan Middleman, chairman and CEO of Freedom Mortgage, said Freedom is ...

Obama administration officials and federal regulators met recently with mortgage industry representatives to discuss lender overlays and other obstacles preventing borrowers with slightly tainted credit and first-time homebuyers from obtaining a mortgage. Neither administration officials nor industry participants, however, spoke on or off the record about the things that were discussed during the Sept. 17 meeting at the White House. It was also unclear whether both sides have agreed on any solutions to the issues that lenders say are preventing them from lending. Sources, however, said one major issue is lenders’ uncertainty about their legal responsibilities and liabilities, which already have cost the industry billions of dollars in massive legacy settlements. Lenders have complained that even the slightest loan paperwork error could force them out of the ...

The market outside the pristine parameters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s qualified mortgage offers less-competitive opportunity and potentially sizeable legal risk, according to panelists participating in a webinar sponsored this week by Inside Mortgage Finance. Brian Simon, chief operating officer for New Penn Financial, noted that the regulatory environment makes a move into non-QM lending much more complicated than in the past because the risks for the originator and the purchaser now are greater than they’ve ever been. However, Simon added: “A high degree of difficulty usually results in higher yield and opportunity.” The New Penn executive predicted...