The CFPB needs to rethink its approach to financial innovators, and one of the most welcomed changes would be to reinvent the agency’s “no-action letters” policy, compliance attorneys said. The program was introduced in February 2016 as part of the bureau’s “Project Catalyst” to improve access to consumer financial products and services, and to reduce regulatory uncertainty for financial innovators.A no-action letter would indicate that bureau staff have reviewed a company’s application ...

CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney said the bureau will depend on state attorneys general for more leadership and more collaboration in enforcing consumer protection laws. “We are going to look into the state regulators and state attorneys general for a lot more leadership when it comes to enforcement,” Mulvaney said at the winter meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General. If a state attorney general is not bringing an action that the bureau is looking at, “I’m going to want to know why,” he said ...

Two recent Government Accountability Office reports suggested regulators, including the CFPB, take additional steps to address compliance burdens for community banks and credit unions. Over 60 smaller depository institutions told GAO that regulations for reporting mortgage characteristics, reviewing transactions for potentially illicit activity, and disclosing mortgage terms were the most problematic.Data-requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act are great burdens, according to ...

The CFPB under the leadership of Acting Director Mick Mulvaney last week issued its latest five-year plan that differs markedly from the previous one in that it takes a more industry-friendly posture than the last one that was issued back in 2013 under the Richard Cordray era. “If there is one way to summarize the strategic changes occurring at the bureau, it is this: we have committed to fulfill the bureau’s statutory responsibilities, but go no further,” Mulvaney said. “By hewing to the statute ...

In another leg of CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s “call for evidence,” the agency has issued a request for feedback on its enforcement processes. The agency “is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist the bureau in assessing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its processes related to the enforcement of federal consumer financial law, and, consistent with the law, considering whether any changes to these processes would be appropriate,” it said ...

In addition to the formal request for information the CFPB issued on its enforcement processes, the agency also put out an RFI addressing its supervisory processes. “The bureau is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist in assessing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its supervision program and whether any changes to the program would be appropriate,” the agency said. “This RFI will provide an opportunity for the public to submit feedback and suggest ...

Two recent internal policy memos from the Department of Justice suggest that the agency is reevaluating its approach in two key areas of enforcement, which may significantly affect False Claims Act litigation in FHA cases. Issued last month (one was actually leaked), the memos pertain to the dismissal of frivolous whistleblower cases when the government declines to intervene, and the prohibition of DOJ attorneys relying on an entity’s noncompliance with agency guidance as presumptive or conclusive evidence that the entity violated the law. Written by Michael Granston, director of the DOJ’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, the leaked Jan. 10 memo directs federal prosecutors to consider dismissing meritless FCA complaints by whistleblowers when considering whether DOJ should intervene in the ...

Last week, the en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in the tussle between the CFPB and PHH Corp. The ruling addressed two distinct issues in the dispute, the first being the leadership structure of the CFPB, which PHH alleged was unconstitutional. The district court had previously sided with PHH, but the appeals court reversed that component of the ruling, and did so largely on party lines. On the other hand, the appeals court judges transcended party orientation and sided with PHH on the part of the dispute that deals with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. (See following story.) On the question of the constitutionality of the ...

The second part of last week’s ruling by the en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit went in favor of PHH Mortgage in its lengthy legal dispute with the CFPB over issues tied to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The court upheld the original three-judge panel interpretation of RESPA and its application to PHH in this case, stating that it was improperly applied and that the lender is entitled to the relief granted.More specifically, the en banc court reinstated the Oct. 11, 2016, panel decision related to the RESPA issues, which included vacating the bureau’s order imposing $109 million in disgorgement penalties, and remanded the matter for further proceedings based ...

In response to last week’s ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that confirmed the constitutionality of the CFPB but rejected the bureau’s interpretation of RESPA in its legal dispute with PHH Mortgage, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, suggested CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. “I am deeply disappointed with the court’s decision and hope the Supreme Court will review the ruling in short order,” said Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “In the meantime, I take great solace in the fact that Mick Mulvaney can use his unchecked, unilateral powers to continue the agency’s transformation into one that will, as he said, ‘exercise [its] statutory authority to enforce the ...