Nationstar in the CFPB’s Crosshairs Over HMDA Reporting. Nationstar, the residential mortgage servicer, revealed recently it is being investigated by the CFPB over issues related to complying with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.... Non-Agency MBS Issuers Like the Legal Protection of the ATR. Congressional Republicans may be working on legislation to repeal and replace many regulations required by the Dodd-Frank Act, but some issuers of mortgage-backed securities are actually pushing to maintain some of the regulations.... Trump Executive Order on Regulatory Red Tape Unlikely to Apply to CFPB. Will the Bureau Comply Anyway? The executive order that President Trump signed in the middle of February that requires every federal agency to establish a regulatory reform task force to eliminate red tape probably does not apply to the CFPB, according to industry experts....

The government has until April 17 to prove that the 11,000 documents it is withholding are correctly labeled as “privileged.” This week, a ruling by Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney ordered the government to review the documents and release those that are non-privileged to the plaintiff’s attorneys in Fairholme Funds Inc. et al., v. The United States. The order came on the heels of a January appeals court ruling that found the bulk of a batch of 56 documents the government refused to turn over to the plaintiff’s attorneys, after being ordered to do so last year, did not merit privilege treatment. They included various memos, emails and presentations from the Treasury, Federal Housing...

The Trump administration looks to be taking sides with a mortgage lender that says the configuration of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional. The government, through the Department of Justice and the Solicitor General, usually sides with government agencies in court cases. But in the closely watched lawsuit involving PHH Mortgage and the CFPB, it’s expected to oppose the bureau’s stance. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit approved...

After years of confusion among servicers and borrowers, the Internal Revenue Service is getting closer to issuing guidance about how servicers should report interest to the IRS on mortgages that receive significant loan modifications. The Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association recently submitted a joint comment letter to the agency, which announced plans to issue guidance on the matter back in December 2015. The trade groups said...

Can a technology that helped bring the cryptocurrency Bitcoin into being enhance the securitization markets? The Structured Finance Industry Group and the Chamber of Digital Commerce think so and have partnered to help make it happen. According to Perianne Boring, founder and president of the CDC, which bills itself as the world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry, “The securitization process is an ideal candidate for the efficiencies of distributed ledger technology. “Blockchain platforms create...

The threat of large, unpredictable settlements are looming over several European banks that have not yet resolved their remaining MBS lawsuits, putting pressure on their earnings and capital, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. Uncertainty about the scale of penalties from legacy MBS lawsuits will compel the affected banks to continue being cautious about managing and retaining capital, and distributing dividends. Though most of the banks have strengthened their capital positions considerably since the financial crisis, there would be no rest for them until the last settlement dime has been paid, the report indicated. Bank settlements with U.S. agencies relating to fraud investigations of their roles in the financial crisis, specifically their legacy MBS business, have...

Each of the parties that were rebuffed recently in their attempts to intervene in the controversial legal dispute between PHH Corp. and the CFPB decided they wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Each of them again filed a motion with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking permission to intervene in the case, contrary to prevailing appeals court rules. Earlier this month, Democrat attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia submitted a petition for rehearing en banc. Also, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, submitted a motion for rehearing en banc, as did a handful of public interest, consumer advocacy groups. All seek to inject themselves into the ...

It’s not just the defenders of the CFPB that are itching to enter the legal fray between the bureau and PHH Corp. The plaintiffs in State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, et al. v. Lew have also filed a motion to intervene in the en banc proceeding. The plaintiffs – State National Bank of Big Spring, TX, the 60 Plus Association and the Competitive Enterprise Institute – had previously asked the federal district court for the District of Columbia to consolidate their 2012 lawsuit against the CFPB with that of PHH. However, they were recently denied. In their subsequent petition to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, the plaintiffs noted, “More than 18 months ago, this court ...

It looks like the CFPB may be prepping an enforcement action against Altisource Portfolio Solutions over certain unspecified technology services provided to Ocwen, its largest customer, according to Altisource’s 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed in recent days. “[O]n Nov. 10, 2016, Altisource received a Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise (NORA) letter from the CFPB indicating that the CFPB is considering a potential enforcement action against Altisource relating to an alleged violation of federal law that primarily concerns certain technology services provided to Ocwen,” the firm said. On Dec. 15, 2016, Altisource provided a written response to the NORA letter setting forth the legal, policy and factual reasons why it believes an enforcement action is ...

Harbour Portfolio Advisors of Dallas, one of the largest providers of seller-financed homes in the U.S., must comply with a civil investigative demand from the CFPB for documents and other information, according to a recent ruling by Judge Nancy Edmunds of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, in Detroit. The main issue here, according to the respondents in the case, is whether the bureau’s investigative authority extends to their selling, marketing and servicing of a financial product called an agreement for deed (AFD), otherwise known as a “contract for deed” or a “land installment contract.” An AFD is a written agreement to purchase residential property, whereby the seller agrees to deliver a deed to the purchaser ...