As 2016 drew to a close, various industry officials were busy making the case for legislation that would alter the structure of the CFPB and clip its wings as part of a strategy to scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and provide lenders with significant regulatory relief. Industry officials are confident they will encounter a more sympathetic White House with Donald Trump as the occupant. Analysts with Compass Point Research & Trading believe a number of important issues will be addressed as part of the final legislative regulatory relief package, including governance changes shifting the CFPB, as well as the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, into commission structures. They also expect to see ...

CFPB Again Moves Against Finance Company. Late last month, the CFPB took its second legal action against Military Credit Services, LLC, a Norfolk, VA-based finance company, accusing the company of making loans with improper disclosures.... TransUnion Agrees to $19.4 Million Settlement. TransUnion, one of the largest credit reporting agencies in the U.S., has agreed to settle a dispute with the CFPB over the company’s practices related to the advertising, marketing and sale of consumer reports, credit scores or credit marketing products to consumers, the firm said in a recent Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission....

Fitch Ratings edged out Standard & Poor’s as the most active rating services in the non-mortgage ABS market during the first nine months of 2016, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking reveals. Fitch also was the top rating service in the more subdued non-agency MBS market. The company rated some $10.80 billion of non-agency MBS, or 64.8 percent of the total market, which includes a substantial volume of unrated private deals. DBRS (37.2 percent market share) and Moody’s Investors Service (34.5 percent) were...[Includes two data tables]

This week, for only the first time this year and only the second time in the last decade, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points, a move widely expected by market participants. What captured more attention was an upward adjustment of the Federal Open Market Committee’s so-called “dot plot,” suggesting that the U.S. central bank anticipates possibly raising rates three times during each of the next three years. Last year at this time, the FOMC raised...

If lenders evaluated borrowers more “holistically” and put less emphasis on credit scores, the share of minorities receiving purchase mortgages could increase significantly, according to analysts at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. Laurie Goodman, director of the HFPC, and Alanna McCargo, the co-director, noted that some 70.0 percent of purchase mortgages originated in 2015 went to white borrowers. They suggested that the disparate impact of tight credit is ...

Commercial bank and savings institution holdings of non-agency ABS fell again during the third quarter of 2016, marking the 11th consecutive quarterly decline in the industry’s investment in the sector, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data reveals. Banks and thrifts held $128.55 billion of ABS on their balance sheets at the end of September, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter. The industry’s aggregate ABS portfolio was off 8.8 percent from the same point in 2015. The ABS market itself shrank...[Includes two data tables]

Industry Groups Urge Congressional Leaders to Pass ‘Tax Extenders’ Legislation. Three industry groups called upon House and Senate leaders to pass “tax extenders” legislation, including two critical tax provisions that are scheduled to expire at the end of 2016. In a joint letter this week, the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders called for the “rapid enactment” of a broad “tax extenders” package, including mortgage-debt forgiveness and tax deduction for mortgage insurance premiums. Passing a legislative package of tax extenders that includes the two provisions would provide much-needed certainty to the residential real estate markets, the letter said. Federal Agencies Propose Rule to Expand Access to Private Flood Insurance. Federal banking and credit union regulators and the Farm Credit Administration have published a ...

Issuance of non-mortgage ABS increased by 25.5 percent from the second quarter of 2016 to the third, thanks to significant increases in several asset categories, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. The market produced $54.05 billion of non-mortgage ABS during the third quarter, the highest output since the second quarter of last year. Despite the gain, year-to-date issuance remained 1.9 percent below the level notched in the first nine months of 2015. A lot of the increase came...[Includes two data tables]

Wells Fargo – no doubt – is taking it on the chin for its “account fabrication” scandal tied to credit cards and deposits, but so far the damage has yet to seep into its mortgage business in a major way, but reports suggest certain correspondents are balking at doing business with the megabank. Dave Akre, managing director of Five Oaks Investment Corp., said he knows some loan officers working for Wells correspondents who are no longer offering the megabank’s jumbo products “due to recent issues.” Those “issues,” he pointed out in an interview with Inside Mortgage Finance, involve...

The CFPB filed a lawsuit in federal district court last month against Prime Marketing Holdings, a credit repair company based in Van Nuys, CA, for allegedly charging consumers a series of illegal advance fees as well as for misrepresenting the cost and effectiveness of its services. According to the bureau’s complaint, Prime Marketing Holdings lured consumers with misleading, unsubstantiated claims ...