One year into the TRID rule, the mortgage industry has gotten used to the new disclosure landscape. But until consistent legal precedents are established by the courts, true certainty will be elusive, and that likely means years will have to transpire before the rule’s full impact will be known. “I think the industry as a whole has met the challenge and settled into the TRID process, which everyone knows was radically different than what it replaced,” said Donald Lampe, a partner in the financial services group in the Washington, DC, office of the Morrison & Foerster law firm. “And so I see the industry settling in to the use of these new forms and the changes that these disclosures imposed ...

Now that mortgage lenders have had a year to digest the CFPB’s controversial TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule, smaller financial institutions have learned to cope to a certain degree, but there are still challenges and costs. That’s the perspective of Ron Haynie, senior vice president of mortgage finance policy and executive vice president of mortgage services for the Independent Community Bankers of America. “I guess the good news is the market didn’t seize up and mortgage closings didn’t come to a screeching halt or average turn times didn’t get out to 60 days plus,” he told Inside the CFPB recently. “While things slowed down in the beginning, average turn times seemed to have settled around 46 days. And while that’s still ...

The White House Council of Economic Advisers put out a report recently downplaying the negative effects that the Dodd-Frank Act has had on community banks. “Economic evidence finds that community banks remain strong across a range of measures, from lending growth to geographic reach, including their performance since financial reform passed in 2010,” the report stated. The Obama administration report also asserts that access to community banks remains robust and their services have continued to grow in the years since Dodd-Frank has taken effect, “though this trend has not been uniform across community banks, with mid-sized and larger community banks seeing stronger growth than the smallest ones,” it conceded. “At the same time, though, many community banks – especially the smallest ...

Back in August, the CFPB proposed to dump the current “dispute” function in the consumer complaint closing process and replace it with a short survey – an idea that went over like a lead balloon with the mortgage industry. Through the proposed survey, a customer would have the opportunity to state, using a one- to five-point scale, whether he agreed or disagreed with the following three statements regarding the company’s response to, and handling of, his complaint. They are: “The company addressed all of my issues,” “I understood the company’s response,” and “The company did what it said it would do.” The customer would also be given the opportunity to provide a narrative description to explain the rating. The Consumer Bankers ...

Comments on TRID 2.0 Are Due Tuesday. Representatives of the mortgage industry have until 11:59 p.m. ET Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016, to submit their comments to the CFPB regarding its TRID 2.0 clarifying proposed rule.... CFPB Issues Revised TRID Guide to CD, LE Forms. The CFPB recently published an updated guide to the TRID loan estimate and closing disclosure forms, which was last revised in July 2015.... Bureau Releases Updated TRID Compliance Guide for Small Entities. Earlier this month, the CFPB put out a revised small entity compliance guide for the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule, which was last updated in July 2015....

MBA Presses CFPB to Review PACE Lending. Earlier this year, the Mortgage Bankers Association wrote to the CFPB to express its concerns about Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) lending programs, one of which has to do with a borrower’s ability to repay the financing.... CFPB Brings $28.5 Million Enforcement Action Against Navy Fed. Last week, the CFPB and Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest CU in the U.S., signed a consent order requiring the institution to pay roughly $23 million in redress to victims harmed by its allegedly improper debt collection actions, along with a civil money penalty of $5.5 million to the bureau.... CFPB Announces Senior Leadership Changes. The CFPB recently announced some senior leadership changes at the bureau, such as John Coleman, who will serve as deputy general counsel for litigation and oversight in the legal division....

Financial institutions that are under scrutiny for questionable practices involving residential MBS can avoid a lot of grief and legal expenses if they cooperate early in the investigation, according to the Department of Justice’s chief overseer of civil litigation. In recent remarks at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ annual conference in Chicago, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Bill Baer underscored the wisdom and benefits of early cooperation in a government RMBS inquiry. There would have been...

Requiring an undercapitalized issuer to repurchase uninsured performing mortgages out of a mortgage-backed securities pool could increase risk to the federal government, warned Ginnie Mae. Responding to an adverse audit report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General, Ginnie said that while it generally accepts the IG’s recommendations, forcing an undercapitalized issuer to buy out performing loans and either hold them in portfolio or sell them at a substantial loss would put the government at greater risk. “This is something we need to be alert to in certain cases,” the agency said. According to the report, Ginnie improperly allowed more than $49 million of single-family mortgages with terminated insurance to remain in its MBS pools for more than one year without obtaining FHA coverage. The IG warned Ginnie could be on the ...

Lenders are optimistic about a proposed rule that would reinstate FHA spot financing in unapproved condominium projects, saying this could be the spark that would jump-start the slow condo market.The proposed rules would clarify and modify certain FHA rules to kick-start condominium lending activity, and allow some flexibility in existing approval standards. Key proposals include the reinstatement of spot approvals in unapproved condominium developments and extending the effective recertification period for condo approvals to three years, rather than the current two-year requirement. Prior to 2009, spot approval allowed a buyer to use FHA financing to purchase a unit in an unapproved condo project, but the HUD approval process was expensive and time consuming. Consequently, few lenders were able to take advantage of the spot-approval program. The Department of ...

Industry groups are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reconsider a supplemental proposal to require mortgagees to assign a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loan to the FHA once the loan balance reaches 98 percent of the maximum claim amount (MCA). The Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association said there are more disadvantages than benefits to the proposal. The supplemental proposal is an offshoot from a previous HUD proposed rule to codify significant changes made to the HECM program by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 and all other revisions in between. Both groups recommended that HUD maintain its current assignment election options rather than adopt the proposed rule. Currently, mortgagees have an option, before the ...