The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the dispute between the CFPB and PHH Corp. has some significant enforcement implications for the bureau, according to a top compliance attorney. At stake in particular is the bureau’s authority to enforce federal consumer financial protection laws as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) prohibition of unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). In a recent client note, Barbara Mishkin, of counsel in the Philadelphia office of the Ballard Spahr law firm, noted that among the court’s findings was that the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act’s three-year statute of limitations (SOL) applies to the agency’s administrative enforcement actions. “Not only did ...

Vendor Provides TRID-Oriented Video Content. Fast Forward Stories, a Bellingham, WA, provider of “brand-able” video content for the mortgage, title and real estate industries, recently released a download-ready library of 26 mortgage explainer videos on the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID).... ICYMI: Here’s What Happens to Fines, Penalties Levied by the CFPB. A new report from the Government Accountability Office summarizes what happens to the fines and penalties the CFPB imposes on financial institutions for mortgage-related offenses, as follows ...

Social media and mobile-digital communications have already reshaped a number of industries, and mortgage banking isn’t going to be any different, according to a leading guru in the field. Many of today’s loan officers are going to become obsolete unless they adapt to rapidly shifting consumer expectations, said Clara Shih, CEO and founder of Hearsay Social, during a session at the recent annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Although there are some ...

RE/MAX Holdings is working to place mortgage brokers in real estate brokerage locations using a franchise model that the firm has used to become the top residential home seller. Officials at RE/MAX stress that the Motto Mortgage effort is compliant with stringent regulations regarding the mixing of real estate agents and mortgage offerings. Dave Liniger, CEO of RE/MAX, said many real estate agents and brokerages are eager to work closely with loan originators. “However, compliance remains...

HomeBridge Financial Services this week agreed to buy the assets of Prospect Mortgage, marking one of the largest acquisitions of the year and stoking the hopes of investment bankers that more deals may lay ahead. But HomeBridge’s purchase of Prospect could turn out to be an anomaly. According to HomeBridge CEO Peter Norden, the two parties had been talking on and off about combining forces for roughly five years. For Norden, the combination of the two nonbanks – both privately held – is...

Collecting disaggregated race and ethnicity data a full year before the revised Home Mortgage Disclosure Act regulations become effective will benefit covered creditors as they become used to the new requirements and make the necessary system adjustments to accommodate a new wave of granular HMDA data, according to industry attorneys. A policy statement issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in late September creates a temporary safe harbor for lenders that take advantage of the one-year window – Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017 – to collect disaggregated ethnic and racial information in their home-loan application if borrowers agree to provide it. Previous amendments to HMDA will require...

Top mortgage industry representatives urged the CFPB to do more to facilitate the curing of loans with errors under the agency’s controversial Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, otherwise known as TRID. One such organization was the Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable. In its comment letter to the CFPB, the HPC said providing more formal guidance on when and how lenders may correct or cure errors is not just a question of potential liability for lenders; it’s also important in reducing the uncertainty of customers if they experience varying interpretations by different lenders. “We recognize that it is difficult to anticipate all types of potential errors in advance,” said the HPC. “There ...

In the weeks leading up to the effective date of the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule, the agency’s director, Richard Cordray, made clear that, from a supervisory perspective, the bureau would view enforcement of the rule as more diagnostic than punitive – an approach many industry officials believe should continue. In commenting on the CFPB’s proposed rule to clarify a number of aspects of TRID, the Mortgage Bankers Association strongly urged the current diagnostic examination approach be formally extended until the changes necessitated by a final rule have been fully implemented and it is clear that the compliance difficulties with such a complex rule have been largely resolved. “With this policy and the bureau’s and industry’s active engagement as compliance moves forward ...

Many elements of the mortgage finance industry took up the primary concern that real estate agents have had with the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule since it first took effect: the sharing of the closing disclosure with third parties. In their recent comments to the bureau on its TRID clarifying proposal, multiple industry players said they were glad to see the agency addressed this issue somewhat; however, more must be done. The National Association of Realtors, for instance, told the bureau that one of the unintended consequences of the integrated disclosure rule has been lenders’ reluctance to share the new required CD with real estate professionals out of fear of liability for disclosing clients’ nonpublic personal information.“Regulation P, which governs ...

A number of industry software and technology vendors told the CFPB they must have a minimum of one year to fully test and comply with all the changes the agency wants to implement with its TRID clarifying proposed rule. Computer systems and software vendor Jack Henry & Associates said that due to the nature of these proposed changes (which will require revisions to forms, calculations and logic in the software), the industry needs an absolute minimum of 12 months for its implementation period. “Software providers such as Jack Henry & Associates work with multiple business partners and need lead time to analyze, plan, design, develop, test, document and distribute software changes to our financial institution clients prior to the implementation ...