Consumer complaints to the CFPB continued their quarter-by-quarter rise and fall, but one strong message from second quarter data is that financial services providers of all types saw a big improvement in the sheer volume of gripes, a new analysis by Inside the CFPB found. Overall, criticisms fell by 14.8 percent in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Of the eight categories of consumer criticisms we track, seven saw double-digit improvements in 2Q14, ranging from an 11.3 percent drop related to bank accounts, to an 18.5 percent fall having to do with home mortgages. The sole category that saw an increase in the period ended June 30, 2014, was money transfers, which saw a rise of a scant [with 3 charts] ...

The American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association and the Financial Services Roundtable urged the Office of Management and Budget to put the kibosh on the CFPB’s proposal to conduct a national telephone survey of 1,000 credit card holders. The proposal is part of the CFPB’s study of the use of mandatory arbitration agreements in connection with the offering of consumer financial products and services. “The associations strongly recommend that OMB not approve the proposal because it will not produce information of practical utility, remains materially flawed and is inconsistent with the statutory mandate,” the groups said in a joint letter. Instead, the groups recommended that the bureau focus on obtaining important consumer information related to arbitration, including information with ...

The FHA is seeking comment on two new sections of a proposed single-family handbook for mortgage lenders. The handbook is in development. Once completed, it will serve as the centralized source of current and future FHA policies. Agency staff is collating policies from several handbooks, rules, mortgagee letters, notices and other sources to incorporate into the handbook. The FHA is publishing two new sections, “Doing Business with FHA – FHA Lenders and Mortgagees” and “Quality Control, Oversight and Compliance,” for comment. The “Doing Business” section lays out the requirements for FHA lender approval, including eligibility requirements, application processes, operating requirements and post-approval changes. The section also contains the recertification process as well as processes for applying for ...

Commercial banks and thrifts held $172.6 billion of non-mortgage ABS as of the end of the first quarter, a 10.2 percent drop from December 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of call report data. The industry’s top ABS investor, TD Bank, increased...[Includes one data chart]

Last week, the CFPB ordered GE Capital Retail Bank – a financial institution in New Jersey now known as Synchrony Bank – to provide approximately $225 million in relief to consumers harmed by alleged illegal and discriminatory credit card practices. Under the terms of a consent order brought by the bureau, GE Capital is required to refund $56 million to approximately 638,000 consumers who were subjected to allegedly deceptive marketing practices. As part of the joint enforcement action by the CFPB and Department of Justice, GE Capital must also provide an additional $169 million to about 108,000 borrowers excluded from debt relief offers because of their national origin. The consent order represents the federal government’s largest credit card discrimination settlement in history...

The CFPB officially made it clear again that it will propose a rule to define “larger participants of a market for auto lending,” according to the agency’s recently updated semi-annual rulemaking agenda. The bureau is also now in the process of finalizing a rule defining larger participants in the international money transfer market, after having previously defined larger participants in the consumer debt collection, credit reporting and student loan servicing markets. Elsewhere, the CFPB is...

The CFPB intends to conduct a national telephone survey of 1,000 credit card holders and is seeking additional public comment and eventual approval from the Office of Management and Budget, according to a recent notice in the Federal Register. This survey follows an earlier effort last summer along similar lines. Both are...

Echoing an assessment that has become all too common across the housing and mortgage markets, CFPB Director Richard Cordray said excessive student loan debt is keeping many young people from buying a house and taking on a mortgage. “The consumers we hear from tell us how their debt burden has stopped them from buying a home, opening a small business, or starting a family,” Cordray said in a speech last week. With student-loan debt now having reached $1.2 trillion, the CFPB estimates that more than 7 million Americans are in default on a student loan. “For those who default early in their lives, the negative consequences for their credit report can make it more difficult to pass employment background checks...

The fourth edition of the CFPB’s Supervisory Highlights report, released last week, reveals that recent “nonpublic supervisory actions” and self-reported violations in a number of program areas have resulted in more than $70 million in remediation for approximately 775,000 consumers. The report also highlighted what the bureau characterized as illegal actions uncovered by the agency’s supervision of the payday, debt collection and consumer-reporting markets – which are now being supervised on a federal level for the first time due to the authority conferred upon the CFPB by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. “For the first time at the federal level, nonbank financial institutions are subject to supervisory oversight that holds them accountable for how they treat consumers,"...

Standard & Poor’s ranked as the top rating service in the non-mortgage ABS market and also claimed the top spot in the sputtering non-agency MBS sphere, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking of first-quarter activity. S&P rated seven of the 11 non-agency MBS issued in the first three months of 2014, or 78.0 percent based on dollar volume. Once the perennial leader in non-agency MBS ratings, S&P’s market share has been around 40.0 percent in recent years. DBRS ranked...[Includes two data charts]