Investors in auto loan ABS may need to buckle up. Both prime and subprime auto loan ABS have weakened month-over-month and year-over-year, according to S&P Global Ratings. “Collateral performance in the U.S. prime auto loan ABS sector was weaker in July, with net losses and 60-plus-day delinquencies increasing month-over-month, while recovery rates decreased,” the S&P analysts said. “Collateral performance for the subprime sector deteriorated...

The CFPB recently brought a $32.25 million enforcement action against First National Bank of Omaha, alleging deceptive marketing and illegal billing of add-on credit card products that it claimed harmed hundreds of thousands of borrowers. According to the CFPB, from 2002 until at least 2012, First National Bank of Omaha offered add-on debt cancellation products with its credit card, including products dubbed “Secure Credit” and “Payment Protection.” The bureau said the bank promoted these products as providing a monthly payment to the cardholder’s account in the event of certain hardships, such as involuntary unemployment, hospitalization or disability. Cardholders were charged a monthly fee for the products. First National Bank of Omaha also offered credit monitoring products, including “Privacy Guard” and ...

The CFPB recently brought a $4 million enforcement action against Wells Fargo, alleging the bank engaged in illegal private student loan servicing practices that increased costs and unfairly penalized certain student loan borrowers. “Wells Fargo hit borrowers with illegal fees and deprived others of critical information needed to effectively manage their student loan accounts,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The bureau said it identified breakdowns throughout Wells Fargo’s servicing process, such as failing to provide important payment information to consumers, charging consumers illegal fees, and failing to update inaccurate credit report information. One of the CFPB’s charges against the company was that it processed payments in a way that maximized fees for many consumers. “Specifically, if a borrower made a ...

The Federal Communications Commission has issued a baffling final rule restricting the way servicers can collect on or service student loans, mortgages and other debts owed to the federal government.Specifically, the rule implements a key provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 amending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to exclude robocalls from the TCPA consent requirement if they are made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the federal government.The TCPA generally requires a caller to obtain “prior express consent” from the call recipient before making a telemarketing call or an auto-dial call to the recipient’s landline or cell phone.However, the mortgage industry raised concerns that TCPA’s consent requirement could create potential liability for important servicing calls that could help homeowners save their homes, which prompted Congress to pass the Budget Act amendment. Last month, the FCC specifically excluded the federal government from the TCPA’s consumer protections by ruling that the government is not a “person” subject to the TCPA. Here is where the FCC rule gets confusing. commission is authorized to adopt rules to “restrict or limit the number and duration” of any wireless calls to collect debt owed to the federal government.”

Student loan borrowers are encountering difficulties when they try to file an application for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, according to the CFPB’s midyear update on student loan complaints, which was released late last week. Since 2009, the vast majority of borrowers with federal student loans have a right under federal law to set their monthly student loan payments based on their income. For borrowers who are unemployed or earn low wages, these IDR plans provide for a “payment” as low as $0 per month.“Many borrowers depend on student loan servicers to inform them about the availability of IDR options and for processing borrowers’ enrollment in these plans,” said the bureau. “This report observes that borrowers encounter obstacles when submitting ...

GOP Legislation Would Exempt Small Nonbank Lenders from CFPB Examination, Enforcement. Rep. Roger Williams, R-TX, recently introduced H.R. 5907, the Community Mortgage Lenders Regulatory Act of 2016, which would exempt qualifying smaller, “responsible” nonbank lenders from CFPB examinations and primary enforcement authority. To qualify, a nonbank mortgage lender must have net worth of less than $50 million; have originated fewer than 25,000 loans or $5 billion in loans the preceding year; and have originated at least 95 percent of their mortgage loans as qualified mortgages the last three years. As currently applies to most banks, a qualifying “responsible community lender” would not be subject...

New issuance of non-mortgage ABS faltered in the second quarter of 2016, but the market has rebounded strongly in recent weeks, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. New ABS issuance totaled $43.07 billion in the second quarter, a modest decline from the first three months of 2016. That put year-to-date production at just $86.42 billion, off 18.0 percent from the first six months of 2015. Activity picked up...[Includes two data tables]

The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are looking a little more serious about pushing legislation that would change the leadership structure of the CFPB from that of a single director to a five-member commission and subject the bureau to the congressional appropriations process. Last week, the full House passed appropriations legislation with provisions that would do just that. Other language would restrict the CFPB’s ability to limit payday lenders, halt the bureau’s efforts to end forced arbitration clauses in credit card contracts, and rescind the agency’s guidance on indirect automobile lending. One additional provision would defund the CFPB’s efforts to stop what it calls predatory lending to borrowers looking to purchase a manufactured home, and another would make ...

The CFPB’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule – dubbed TRID – may have been causing mortgage lenders severe heartburn since it took effect in early October, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at consumer complaints about the mortgage application and origination process. They fell by 9.3 percent during the second quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside the CFPB – part of a larger drop off that found gripes down by 16.5 percent for the period, and off 4.5 percent year over year. The number of complaints that lenders responded to in a timely manner dropped 16.1 percent quarter over quarter, and 4.3 percent year over year. However, that could be because perhaps lenders/servicers were making more of an effort [With two exclusive charts]...

Pleas from the securitization industry for the Supreme Court of the United States to hear an appeal of Midland Funding v. Madden were rejected this week, prolonging uncertainty in sectors of the secondary market. SCOTUS may still consider the issue at some point going forward, according to analysts, providing hope for the industry. Richard Johns, executive director of the Structured Finance Industry Group, said the denial of certiorari for Madden will result in significant challenges for borrowers of credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and other financial products. “The injection of uncertainty into the credit markets will ultimately increase the cost of credit for all and directly impact the real economy,” he said. The Madden case involved...