The CFPB last week announced it wants public feedback on the resubmission of corrected mortgage lending data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. In October 2015, the CFPB finalized its HMDA rule that significantly expands the range of data will that be reported after becoming effective in 2018, with reporting beginning in 2019. “Given these changes, the current resubmission guidelines may need to be updated, and the bureau is seeking feedback on what modifications may be appropriate,” the agency said. Also, some industry stakeholders have asked whether the CFPB would adjust its mortgage lending data resubmission guidelines to reflect the expanded data that will be submitted under the new rules. The bureau’s request for information (RFI) lists a dozen ...

The CFPB is apparently disturbed by recent press accounts of possibly discriminatory lending practices by Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, a lending arm for the mobile home builder Clayton Homes, both of which are part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Company. “The allegations of discrimination and predatory practices raised by the reporting are obviously very concerning to the bureau,” said Sam Gilford, a spokesman for the CFPB. Bureau officials would not comment further. In recent weeks, The Seattle Times and BuzzFeed used data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to claim that Vanderbilt Mortgage, a manufactured housing lender owned by Clayton, consistently originates loans with higher interest rates for minorities compared with interest rates on loans the company originates for white ...

Joint civil fraud initiatives have resulted in $558.5 million in recoveries and receivables to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in FY 2015, according to the HUD inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress. The amount includes civil settlements of $212.5 million from First Tennessee Bank, $29.6 million from Reverse Mortgage Solutions, and $1.8 million from three other settlements. The settlements resolved enforcement actions brought by the Department of Justice on behalf of HUD in pursuit of civil remedies under a variety of statutes, including the False Claims Act, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Recoveries and receivables for other entities during the reporting period – April 1 to Sept. 30, 2015 – totaled $86.9 million and $268.2 million for the entire fiscal year. Some of the payments were made to the ...

Sage Bank, a Lowell, MA-based financial institution with less than $200 million in assets, will pay $1.18 million to settle allegations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that it violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by discriminating in the pricing of its mortgage loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers. The government accused Sage Bank of charging African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher prices for residential mortgages than similarly situated white borrowers for reasons that had nothing to do with their creditworthiness. “Specifically, under Sage Bank’s pricing policy, each of its loan officers was assigned a target price, which was the price a loan officer was required to achieve on each home loan, regardless of a ...

Quicken Loans’ chief executive officer reiterated threats by company owner Dan Gilbert to exit the FHA business amid concerns about a forthcoming lender-certification rule and an ongoing court battle with the Department of Justice. A report by Reuters quoted Gilbert earlier this week as saying he is considering pulling Quicken Loans out of the FHA market. In an interview with IMFnews, Quicken CEO Bill Emerson said top management would be remiss if it did not think about exiting the business. Quicken will decide whether to stay or go after the FHA releases its revised rule on lender certification later this month, he said. The revised proposal restores a provision initially removed from the original proposal, which would require lenders to certify that neither the firm nor its officers have been suspended, debarred or excluded from participation in any federal agency transactions. In addition, the revised proposed rule requires ...

The new and modified data required under the CFPB’s recently released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act final rule will probably result in greater regulatory and legal scrutiny of mortgage lenders, so covered institutions should take a proactive approach to implementation, according to top legal experts. In a recent client alert, the attorneys in the mortgage banking and consumer financial services groups at the Ballard Spahr law firm noted that the new and modified data will include “much more detail about applicants, borrowers, credit, collateral, loan type, pricing, fees, charges, the originator, and the covered institution. The new and modified data will enable regulators and private parties to analyze a lender’s practices in much greater detail than is currently possible.” Analyses of ...

The CFPB continues to see a host of noncompliance issues with mortgage lenders – but some notable improvement on the servicing side of the industry too. According to the CFPB’s latest supervisory highlights report, the bureau cited a range of problems lenders are having originating mortgages. For instance, regulators saw evidence of failing to fully comply with the requirement that charges at settlement not exceed amounts on the good faith estimate by more than specified tolerances. Some lenders also are failing to fully comply with requirements for completion of HUD-1 settlement statements, to provide homeownership counseling disclosures, or to provide accurate loan servicing disclosure statements. Other lenders are not complying with consumer financial information privacy requirements, the report indicated. In other ...

Are Home Builders Next on the CFPB’s MSA Hit List? Lender anxiety tied to the CFPB’s crackdown on marketing services agreements is reaching a new fever pitch these days, while spreading to other sectors of the housing finance industry, namely home builders and Realtors. Industry officials interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter, recently said title insurance affiliates owned by Realtors and home builders are a particular area of concern – namely pushing customers into using service providers in which they have an ownership stake. “I’ll tell you where the RESPA [Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act] violation is – it’s pressing customers into using their title company,” said one trade group executive. “The idea is that the consumer gets to pick ...

Financial institutions will be required to provide much more data to monitor fair lending compliance and access to credit under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, thanks to a new, 800-page, final rule the CFPB issued last week. Under the new rule, lenders must provide more information about mortgage loan underwriting and pricing, such as an applicant’s debt-to-income ratio, the interest rate of the loan, and the discount points charged. “This information will enhance the ability to screen for possible fair lending problems, helping both institutions and regulators focus their attention on the riskiest areas where fair lending problems are most likely to exist,” said the CFPB. “This information will also help the bureau and other stakeholders monitor developments in specific ...

The mortgage lending industry had a less-than-enthusiastic greeting for another rulemaking from the CFPB that goes on for hundreds of pages. The initial reaction from the American Bankers Association was muted. Frank Keating, president and CEO, said his organization is pleased that the bureau extended the compliance date and excluded the collection of data on most commercial transactions, something the ABA advocated. “However, we continue to be concerned about the privacy of bank customers’ data and ensuring that their information is properly protected. We look forward to commenting on these important issues,” he added. “The rule also imposes significantly expanded data reporting and collection requirements, so we remain concerned about the appropriate balancing of costs and benefits in order to ...