In an effort to spur better industry compliance with its 2013 mortgage servicing rules, the CFPB last week released an updated mortgage servicing exam manual, reflecting a greater emphasis on the handling of consumer complaints as well as fair lending. The bureau regularly publishes a mortgage servicing chapter of the CFPB Supervision and Examination Manual to reflect regulatory changes, to make technical corrections, and to update examination priorities. This new, third iteration of its exam procedures offers guidance to financial institutions and mortgage companies on what the bureau will be looking for in its exams. Among other things, mortgage servicers should note a greater emphasis in exams on the handling of consumer complaints. The CFPB has enhanced the section related ...

If you’re a mortgage lender waiting for your first examination from the CFPB, there are three important principles you should be aware of, according to Burton Embry, executive vice president and chief compliance officer of Primary Residential Mortgage, based in Salt Lake City, UT. Delivering a presentation during a webinar sponsored by the California Mortgage Bankers Association last week, Embry began with the obvious: Consumer protection. “One of the CFPB’s big focuses is on consumers. It’s all about consumer protection, we all know that,” he said. “So when they are looking at your policies and procedures, for example, that’s one of the things they are looking at: the risk to consumers.”In other words, “How have you written your policies ...

Late last week, news broke of a conversation from a closed session at the American Bankers Association conference in San Diego that the “sensitive” approach by regulators to respect lenders’ good-faith efforts to comply with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated disclosure rule may have come to an end. According to one well-placed source, the CFPB and the other regulators – the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – have decided that they will start examining banks for technical compliance with TRID, begin requiring restitution to affected borrowers, and start citing banks that are in non-compliance. “Apparently, the message is...

FHA lenders will face stiffer maximum monetary penalties later this year for various violations of agency rules and regulations. The higher monetary penalties are the result of legislation signed into law late last year requiring federal agencies to adjust the current maximum penalty amounts for inflation in order to maintain their deterrent effect. Specifically, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 (2015 Act) requires federal agencies to adjust the level of civil monetary penalties with an initial “catch-up” adjustment through an interim final rule and subsequent annual adjustments for inflation. The interim final rules with the initial penalty adjustments must be published by July 1, 2016. The new penalty levels must take effect no later than Aug. 1, 2016. Additionally, agencies are required to make annual inflation adjustments, starting Jan. 15, 2017, and for each year going forward. The adjustments will ...

In a letter sent to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, the National Association of Realtors asked the agency to clarify that mortgage originators can share the closing disclosure (CD) form with third parties “if the lender receives a consent form from the consumer.” The trade group noted that, before the TRID rule was implemented, real estate agents aided their clients by answering questions about the HUD-1 and by reviewing terms agreed to in the sales contract, such as concessions, escrows, commissions and shares of prorated taxes.

Fannie Mae recently provided sellers with a little more guidance on its expectations related to lender self-reporting of errors in complying with the CFPB’s new disclosure regime under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

The CFPB filed suit against Intercept Corp., a third-party payment processor located in Fargo, ND, and two of its executives for allegedly enabling unauthorized and other illegal withdrawals from consumer accounts by their clients. The CFPB alleges that Intercept and the executives violated the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition against unfair acts and practices by processing payments for clients without adequately investigating, monitoring or responding to red flags that indicated some clients were breaking the law or deceiving customers.

In its annual report to the CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission detailed the enforcement work it did last year in three cases dealing with mortgage assistance relief services, several of which involved alleged forensic audit scams.

Maybe it’s just a matter of semantics. But mortgage lending trade group officials, industry attorneys and compliance professionals seem to be sending mixed signals as to whether the CFPB is now examining lenders for compliance with the controversial integrated disclosure rule, TRID. Rod Alba, senior vice president of mortgage markets, financial management and public policy for the American Bankers Association, told Inside the CFPB that his organization is not hearing that the bureau has started TRID compliance reviews. “Although our members report that examiners are inquiring about TRID implementations, and may be looking at one or another disclosure packet, they are generally assuring that the bank is engaged in active TRID implementation and trouble-shooting,” Alba said. “The banks we heard ...

One of the biggest red flags that will bring CFPB examiners charging in a lender’s direction is the level of consumer criticisms lodged against a company, especially if the number of such gripes is disproportionately large, a top industry attorney reminded the industry recently. Addressing attendees earlier this month during a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, a sibling publication, Michelle Rogers, a partner in the BuckleySandler law firm office in Washington, DC, said, “If your complaints are anomalous in that they’re much higher than others in your industry – peers, folks of your size – you are more likely to get an exam than others. And so you want to make sure that you’re mitigating or addressing those issues.” And those ...