A Ginnie Mae crackdown on abusive VA refinancing could be positive for housing finance reform, according to a Washington research organization. In a recent analysis, the Cowen Washington Research Group said Ginnie’s effort to rein in lenders that are engaging in churning might benefit those who are trying to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “We expect Ginnie Mae will succeed in curbing prepayment speed on VA mortgages,” wrote Jaret Seiberg, a financial services and housing policy analyst with the Cowen Group. “The crackdown is positive for government-sponsored enterprise reform as it should restore the spread between Ginnie and Fannie/Freddie MBS.” According to Seiberg, GSE reform advocates could potentially use the spread to pay for a housing finance bill that includes a government guarantee on the resulting MBS. Acting Ginnie Mae President Michael Bright has pledged to ...

Last week, the CFPB issued new proposed policy guidance spelling out how it intends to disclose the loan-level data that financial institutions will report under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The guidance would apply to HMDA data to be reported under Regulation C as of Jan. 1, 2018. The bureau intends to make this data available to the public starting in 2019. “Public disclosure of mortgage data is central to the achievement of HMDA’s goals,” the agency said. “The bureau has considered whether and how HMDA data should be modified prior to its disclosure to the public, in order to protect applicant and borrower privacy while also fulfilling HMDA’s public disclosure purposes.” First, the CFPB is proposing to exclude from ...

Amending one regulation to make it easier for lenders to comply with another, the CFPB last week issued modified Equal Credit Opportunity Act regulations it hopes will give mortgage lenders greater flexibility in collecting consumer ethnicity and race information. The bureau “is issuing a final rule that amends Regulation B [which implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act] to permit creditors additional flexibility in complying with Regulation B in order to facilitate compliance with Regulation C [which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act]...,” the rule states. The new rule also adds certain model forms and removes others from Reg B, and makes various other amendments to the regulation and its commentary to facilitate the collection and retention of information about the ...

A new report from the House Financial Services Committee staff accuses CFPB Director Richard Cordray of misleading Congress about the bureau’s probe of the unauthorized account creation scandal at Wells Fargo, rushing into a settlement without doing the requisite leg work, and agreeing to a paltry settlement when he could have slammed the company for at least $10 billion in fines. As a part of its investigation into the Wells Fargo fraudulent account scandal, the committee said it has obtained a crucial new document – the “Recommendation Memorandum” – that was presented to and approved by Cordray.“The Memorandum shows that the CFPB estimated that the bank was potentially liable for a statutory monetary penalty exceeding $10 billion,” said the committee. “This ...

The latest supervisory highlights report from the CFPB found that mortgage lenders, banks and nonbanks alike, put the controversial TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule – TRID – into effect without much of a problem, more or less. “Initial examination findings and observations conclude that, for the most part, supervised entities, both banks and nonbanks, were able to effectively implement and comply with the Know Before You Owe mortgage disclosure rule changes,” the report stated. However, examiners did find some violations relating to the content and timing of loan estimates and closing disclosures. The problem, however, is that the CFPB does not indicate in these reports which lenders or how many of them may have been guilty of the infractions, so there’s no way ...

An undisclosed number of mortgage servicers continue to drop the compliance ball, according to the latest supervisory highlights report from the CFPB, issued last week. “In recent exams, examiners found that one or more servicers received incomplete loss mitigation applications and pre-approved borrowers for short-term payment forbearance programs based on those applications,” the report noted. “However, the servicer(s) did not notify borrowers of their right to complete the application and did not separately request other information needed to evaluate for all the other loss mitigation options offered by the owner or assignee of the loan.” Also, as the modification program neared its end, and before the short-term payment forbearance period concluded, the servicer(s) failed to reach out to affected borrowers ...

The CFPB has frequently failed to provide the mortgage industry with enough guidance to ensure proper compliance with its substantial outpouring of new rules and regulations, resulting in “regulation by enforcement” far too often, according to a new white paper issued by the Mortgage Bankers Association.“Director Richard Cordray has argued that the bureau’s enforcement regime provides ‘detailed guidance for compliance officers’ and that it ‘would be compliance malpractice for the industry not to take careful bearings from [consent] orders about how to comply with the law,’” the white paper pointed out. “Unfortunately, the reality is that the bureau’s enforcement program offers only fragmentary glimpses of how the bureau interprets the laws and regulations it enforces.” Instead of giving the ...

In remarks that “sure sounded like a campaign speech,” according to one long-time industry compliance attorney, CFPB Director Richard Cordray threw the mortgage industry under the bus, accusing it of causing the financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. Two weeks ago, Cordray delivered the keynote address at the Ohio Land Bank Conference in Cleveland, the same day the Democrat Party primary debate for the Ohio gubernatorial race was held. Some political observers were watching to see if the director would give his speech, resign and then appear in the debate. They were disappointed.But that doesn’t mean Cordray won’t resign before his term ends in July to pursue a run for the governor’s mansion. He has until 4 p.m. ...

The CFPB got a split verdict in a recent ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in its legal tussle with Nationwide Biweekly Administration, of Greene County, OH, which stood accused of engaging in deceptive practices by misleading consumers through its Interest Minimizer mortgage payment program. The bureau won a $7.9 million civil penalty from the defendants, but lost on $74 million in sought-after restitution. “After carefully considering the sufficiency, weight and credibility of the testimony of the witnesses, their demeanor on the stand, the documentary evidence admitted at trial, and the post-trial submissions of the parties, the court finds that CFPB has adequately shown that some, but not all, of defendants’ challenged marketing statements ...

The CFPB’s much-criticized arbitration rule issued earlier this year took effect last week, as a successful vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to overturn it failed to generate enough interest and support for a comparable move in the Senate. It’s likely that the massive Equifax data breach and the company’s seeming attempt to manipulate affected individuals to waive their rights to arbitration in order to sign up for free credit-monitoring services effectively killed what little interest senators may have had in following up on the House’s success. The failure is another blow to a political party that ostensibly controls the Senate, the House and the White House but is struggling to accomplish much legislatively, thanks in part to the ...