The CFPB plans to release its long-awaited final rule to implement Dodd-Frank Act amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in late summer, according to the bureau’s Spring 2015 rulemaking agenda, which was released late last month. “The proposal would help align the law with existing industry standards for collecting data on mortgage loans and applications,” said the agency. “It would also improve HMDA’s effectiveness through changes to institutional and transactional coverage, modifications of reporting requirements, and clarifications of existing regulatory provisions. We expect to release a final rule in late summer.” Elsewhere, the CFPB continues to be steadfast on the Aug. 1, 2015, effective date for its TILA/ RESPA integrated disclosure rule, and its latest rulemaking agenda betrays no ...

Public Silent on Information Collection Plans to Survey Consumers, Conduct Cognitive Research. More than one week after the public comment period closed on two “generic information collection plans” from the CFPB, there was not a single public comment submitted for the official record, Inside the CFPB discovered when searching the U.S. government’s regulation.gov website. The first GICP had to do with surveys using the Consumer Credit Panel. In order to improve its understanding of how consumers engage with financial markets, the CFPB uses this CCP, a proprietary sample dataset from one of the national credit reporting agencies, as a framework to survey people about their experiences in consumer credit markets. The sample includes approximately 5 million de-identified credit records representing ...

Banks and thrifts held $155.55 billion of non-mortgage ABS on their books as of the end of March, a 2.3 percent decline from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call-report data. The first-quarter figures mark the fifth straight quarterly decline in bank ABS holdings, which peaked at $173.80 billion at the end of 2013. Bank ABS holdings were down 9.9 percent from the first quarter of last year. Almost every ABS category was...[Includes two data tables]

CFPB May Review Lender-Paid MI. Pricing on lender-paid mortgage insurance policies has come down over the past several months, apparently spurring the CFPB to take a look at what’s going on behind the curtain. Citing industry officials who claim to have knowledge of the situation, Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated publication, reported late last week that the powerful consumer regulator may focus on whether there is some kind of quid pro quo going on between lenders and mortgage insurers. In particular, the CFPB is interested in the discounting of LPMI in exchange for a lender sending more of its MI business to an insurer and whether such a practice violates the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the newsletter reported. In ...

Non-mortgage ABS production jumped sharply higher in the first quarter of 2015, with $50.08 billion of new issuance, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. First-quarter issuance was up 38.1 percent from the previous three-month period, although early 2015 was down 6.3 percent from a year ago. The two strongest segments of the market were vehicle finance ABS, which accounted for 46.7 percent of issuance during the first quarter, and business loan ABS, which chipped in another 30.9 percent of new production. Ford Motor Credit had...[Includes three data charts]

As the result of a lawsuit it filed late last month, the CFPB has obtained a preliminary injunction against what it characterized as the ringleaders of a “robo-call” phantom debt-collection operation, their companies and their service providers. According to the CFPB, the debt collectors, using various aliases, allegedly deployed automated calls to manipulate consumers in attempts to collect debt the consumers did not owe to them, and in most instances, to anyone else. The bureau alleges that the scheme depended on the participation of the telemarketing company that sent the robo-calls and payment processors that allowed the collectors to access consumers’ bank accounts. Named in the suit are New York resident Marcus Brown and Georgia resident Mohan Bagga, as well ...

The CFPB temporarily put on hold a requirement that certain credit card issuers send their agreements to the bureau every quarter in order to facilitate posting on the agency’s own website. The final rule issued by the bureau last week suspends for one year credit card issuers’ obligations to submit their credit card agreements to the CFPB. Under the rule, credit card issuers will not be required to submit agreements that would otherwise have been due to the bureau by the first business day on or after April 30, July 31 and October 31 of 2015, and January 31, 2016. “During this time, the bureau will work to develop a more streamlined and automated electronic submission system,” the agency said. ...

The GSEs aren’t completely committed to adopting new credit scoring models just yet, but it is on their radar. When asked about the possibility of alternative credit scoring, spokesmen for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pointed to the 2015 Conservatorship Scorecard which stated that they will be assessing the feasibility of alternate credit score models and credit history in loan-decision models. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who spoke at a credit access symposium in Washington last week, said that the FHA is exploring new ways to determine the creditworthiness of consumers to increase access to mortgage lending. Housing industry leaders in attendance said Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other mortgage lenders could increase access....

Many financially struggling consumers echoed the American Bankers Association in arguing that the CFPB’s proposed rules on prepaid products could hurt the so-called underbanked and those who sometimes have more month than they do money. “The CFPB’s proposed rules for prepaid products include some onerous provisions that could create insurmountable compliance barriers for banks offering the cards,” the ABA said in a comment letter. “This would be particularly harmful for ‘underbanked’ individuals, many of whom rely on prepaid accounts as an alternative to traditional deposit products.” One barrier is the CFPB’s proposed treatment of overdrafts, which “effectively prohibits linking prepaid cards to overdraft services ... and prohibits imposing any fee when an account is in overdraft status,” the trade group ...

Consumer complaints to the CFPB fell in most financial service product segments during the first quarter, not only from the previous quarter but also from one year ago, according to the latest analysis of bureau data by Inside the CFPB. Total gripes in the first quarter of 2015 declined 8.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014, and slid 17.0 percent compared to the first quarter of 2014. Once again, consumer criticisms about residential mortgages led the decline in both timeframes, dropping 20.3 percent quarter over quarter and plunging 33.5 percent year over year. The fall-off is likely due to the shrinkage in overall mortgage originations as well as the continued recovery in the overall housing and mortgage markets.The [with exclusive data chart] ...