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 ...

Industry recipients of a civil investigative demand (CID) from the CFPB may have been given a new way to cope, thanks to a recent decision from the District Court for the District of Columbia. In John Doe Company No. 1 v. CFPB, the target of a CFPB investigation brought an injunctive action against the agency seeking a temporary restraining order and a motion to seal the case. John Doe Company No. 1 asserted that sealing the case was justified on two grounds, the first of which is that bureau investigations are usually conducted confidentially. Further, sealing would protect the company from the harm that would result from the negative publicity if the CFPB’s ongoing investigation was made public. In coming ...

Buyer Agents Report Delays in Closing, Thanks to TRID. One month into the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, some real estate closings are already being affected, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. The survey went out to brokers across the U.S. and nearly 20 percent said they are already seeing issues, mostly delays in closing. According to one respondent, “Lenders are almost all asking for 45 days to closing versus the previous 30 days.” Another respondent stated, “We’ve been advised to prepare for further delays until everyone has more experience with the new CFPB/TRID regulations.” “At NAEBA, we applaud the CFPB for its efforts ...

Mortgage lenders are more willing to expand the credit box for FHA borrowers, but they appear to be getting more cautious about FHA lending, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities data. Over two thirds of FHA loans securitized in the first nine months of 2015 had credit scores below 700, and 6.2 percent of them had scores of 620 or lower. By comparison, 47.0 percent of VA loans were below 700 and just 4.4 percent were in the lowest category. But FHA lenders became more cautious as the year wore on. In the first quarter, 6.8 percent of FHA loans had scores of 620 or lower. That fell to just 6.0 percent in the third quarter. The FHA purchase-mortgage sector skews even further away from the riskiest borrowers and toward safer ground. The share of FHA purchase loans with scores of 620 or lower fell from 5.8 percent in the first ... [ 2 charts ]

Facing the possibility of a potential False Claims Act lawsuit, PHH Corp. is reconsidering its participation in the FHA mortgage insurance program. Though PHH’s FHA segment represents only 3 percent of its mortgage volume over the past 12 months, the company will proceed cautiously as it evaluates the risk-adjusted return of FHA products and programs, said Glenn Messina, PHH president and chief executive.Ranked 50th among FHA lenders as of June 30, 2015, PHH expects more regulatory challenges in 2016 as well as rising compliance costs, said Messina during a third-quarter earnings call. In its latest quarterly filing, PHH disclosed receiving a subpoena from the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for documents related to, among other things, FHA loan origination and underwriting practices. Like several other FHA lenders, PHH is ...

The Federal Home Loan Bank System is seeking to boost its share of government-backed lending and the Ginnie Mae market with a new servicing-release option for FHA, VA and rural housing mortgages that are sold into the Mortgage Partnership Finance program. The new feature adds to an existing servicing-retained execution in the MPF Government Mortgage-Backed Securities program. The current servicing-retained component requires participating lenders to service loans they originate and sell into the MPF conduit. The servicing-release option from Nationstar Mortgage, a top-10 mortgage servicer based in Dallas, will provide lenders with greater pricing flexibility so they can become more competitive in the communities they serve, said Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLB. Only FHLBank members that are participants in MPF can use the government MBS program. In order to ...

Marketing services agreements aren’t outlawed – yet. But given that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent guidance on such arrangements doesn’t address the features of what an acceptable MSA would look like, it’s particularly challenging to figure out how best to proceed. Perhaps the only real way forward is to try to avoid those aspects of MSAs that the bureau has clearly identified as problematic, top industry compliance attorneys said during a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance last week. “The best we can do is...

CFPB Director Richard Cordray pooh-pooh’ed mortgage lender concerns that the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule will hurt their business because of the need to extend closings when revisions prompt another round of disclosures. “Now, just as we heard prophets of doom bemoaning the effects of the [ability-to-repay] qualified mortgage rule before it took effect, so too we are hearing some of the same voices bemoaning the effects that the ‘Know Before You Owe’ mortgage disclosure rule will have,” the director said at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in San Diego. “They say that by requiring closing disclosures to be provided three days in advance, the rule will delay and disrupt closings,” ...

Most (86 percent) of U.S. banks and credit union respondents in a recent survey by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services ranked the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule as the top regulatory challenge facing their organizations. When asked about complying with the complex TRID rules, 32 percent of respondents cited “collaborating with stakeholders” as their top issue, while 24 percent identified “last-minute changes that trigger closing delays” as the top anticipated challenges. Another 17 percent cited “information technology preparedness” as the top challenge, while 18 percent were still unsure about the regulation’s greatest impact on their operations. Overall, concerns about regulatory compliance and risk management challenges rose 7 percent compared to WKFS’ survey from ...

CFPB Director Richard Cordray showed no sign of backing down when it comes to the bureau’s expanded scrutiny of and skepticism toward marketing services agreements as possible violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Speaking at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in San Diego, the director noted that his agency concluded from its enforcement experience that MSAs necessarily involve substantial legal and compliance risk for the parties to the agreements – whether they are lenders, brokers, title companies or real estate professionals. “We believe those risks are greater and less capable of being controlled by careful monitoring than mortgage industry participants may have recognized in the past,” said the director. “MSAs appear to create opportunities for parties to ...