The biggest CFPB story of the year – which appointee is authorized to head up the agency in the case of a resignation of the director – involves competing legal arguments interpretations of two federal laws.Deputy Director Leandra English is relying on the CFPB succession provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, while Acting Director Mick Mulvaney and the Trump White House are relying on the text of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The crux of their respective arguments to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia follows. English’s brief to the court declared: “The Dodd-Frank Act is clear on this point: It mandates that the deputy director ‘shall serve as the acting director in the absence or unavailability of the

One of the most surprising aspects of the sudden drama associated with the departure of Richard Corday as director of the CFPB – who started at the bureau with a cloud of controversy and left it the same way – is that the bureau’s own general counsel, Mary McLeod, supported the position of the Trump administration in the struggle for control of the agency. “Questions have been raised whether the president has the authority under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to designate Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the acting director of CFPB following the resignation of Richard Cordray ..., even if the deputy director otherwise could act under 12 U.S.C. §5491(b)(5),” she said in a memorandum ...

Now that U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly has affirmed Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s choice to serve as acting director of the CFPB, one unresolved issue is the fate of his rival for the throne, Leandra English, whom Richard Cordray selected to be deputy director in his last official act before resigning. It’s possible that Mulvaney could flat out fire her, and he intimated last week that was a possibility – his argument being that she didn’t show up for work that day. However, multiple press accounts claimed she did in fact report for duty. One attorney closely following the case conceded, “I think she’s in a tough spot. While she could continue to press her claims in the hope of ...

As the CFPB prepares to move forward with a new strategic plan – which may well be revised, now that Mick Mulvaney is in charge – the mortgage industry again called on the bureau to move beyond “regulation by enforcement.” Instead, it should provide more of the detailed guidance lenders and servicers and other participants need to fully comply with the agency’s rules and regulations and best serve consumers, top industry representatives said. In a recent comment letter to the bureau, the Mortgage Bankers Association noted that the CFPB is at an inflection point in 2017. Now it can “pivot and focus its resources on providing supervision and binding, authoritative guidance that helps responsible parties, including those in the mortgage industry, comply ...

The CFPB and VA recently issued their first WARNO, or “warning order,” to members of the U.S. armed forces and veterans with VA home loans, urging them to stay on their toes and avoid deceptive mortgage refinance offers. “If you have a VA home loan, then there is a good chance that you have already come into contact with unsolicited offers to refinance your mortgage that appear official and may sound too good to be true,” the two agencies said. Many of these solicitations promise extremely low interest rates, thousands of dollars in cash back, the ability to skip mortgage payments, and no out-of-pocket costs or waiting period. “Don’t be fooled,” the CFPB and VA said. “Before responding to any ...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, wrote to Don McGahn, White House counsel, and CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, in his capacity as director of the Office of Management and Budget, last week for answers to questions she has about Mulvaney and other OMB personnel simultaneously serving at the consumer bureau. First, she wanted to know what staff from OMB or elsewhere in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) have accompanied Mulvaney to the CFPB. She requested a complete list of all such staff, their title at OMB or in the EOP, and their title at the CFPB. Warren also sought the authority under which these individuals are working at CFPB. “Have these individuals been appointed to CFPB, or detailed to ...

Fannie Mae’s board chairman and the mayor of Atlanta are in a heated dispute over roughly 100 acres of vacant land that the city said was supposed to serve the low-income population. In fact, Mayor Kasim Reed is suing Egbert Perry and has asked him to step down from his position as non-executive chairman of Fannie’s board. Perry, co-founder and CEO of the Integral Group, joined the GSE’s board in late 2008, and has been chair since 2014. He says he hasn’t done anything wrong. The argument stems from what the mayor calls a “secret deal” made with Integral in 2011 by Renee Glover, the former president and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, who now serves on Fannie’s board.

The Seventh Circuit Court recently reversed an earlier decision that held buyers purchasing property in Chicago from Fannie Mae were liable for state and local transfer taxes. The case involved real property transfer taxes imposed in 2013 and 2014 on purchasers who argued they were legally exempt from having to pay. The Illinois Department of Finance assessed the buyers for the tax. But since the property was purchased from a federal agency, the buyers believed they were exempt from having to pay. The buyers and Fannie then both sued the City of Chicago and asked the federal court to review the finance department’s decision.

Think Tank Makes a Case for GSEs to Become SIFIs. Alex Pollock, senior fellow at the R Street Institute, along with author Thomas Stanton, wrote Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin this week urging him to designate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs).They said that it’s obvious the mortgage giants meet all the criteria specified by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Financial Stability Board for designation as SIFIs and they want the same protective capital and regulatory standards applied to the...

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have issued a joint warning to servicemembers and veterans about VA refinancing offers that sound too good to be true. There is a good chance that borrowers with a VA loan have already received unsolicited offers to refinance their mortgages even just months after closing, the agencies said in their first “warning order” (WARNO). Many of these refi solicitations promise extremely low rates, thousands of dollars in cash back, skipped mortgage payments, no out-of-pocket costs and no waiting period, the agencies noted. The VA and the CFPB said lenders offering VA refinances may use aggressive and potentially misleading advertising and sales tactics. “Lenders may advertise a rate just to get you to respond or you may receive a VA mortgage refi offer that provides limited benefit to you while adding thousands of dollars to your loan balance,” the agencies warned. Even though the VA prohibits a lender from advertising skip payments on ...