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Inside the CFPB

April 20, 2015

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House Points-and-Fees Bill Faces Resistance in Senate

Days after the full House of Representatives passed legislation that would amend the points-and-fees calculation in the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, the bill ran into some sudden resistance on the other side of Capitol Hill. H.R. 685, the Mortgage Choice Act, is a bipartisan bill that would clarify that certain affiliated title costs do not count against the “qualified mortgage” 3 percent cap on points and fees under the bureau’s ATR rule. H.R. 685, introduced by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-MI, with dozens of co-sponsors from both parties, would exclude from the definition of points and fees all title charges, regardless of whether they are charged by an affiliated company, provided they are bona fide and reasonable. Lawmakers in the House passed ... Read More

Lawmakers Join Growing Chorus Calling for Eased TRID Enforcement

The odds that the CFPB will publicly announce or tacitly concede some degree of soft enforcement of its integrated disclosure rule, known as TRID, may have improved recently when two Republican Congressmen called on the bureau to give the mortgage industry such a break when the rule kicks in Aug. 1, 2015. “We strongly encourage you to make the August 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, timeframe a ‘hold harmless’ period of restrained enforcement and liability,” said Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-MO, and Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, in a letter recently sent to CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “This would allow all parties to better understand the changes associated with TRID and help ensure consumer confidence and stability in the nation's housing market,” ... Read More

CFPB Cracks Down on Mortgage Lender Over Advertising Practices

The CFPB brought an enforcement action against RMK Financial Corp., a California-based mortgage lender, for allegedly using deceptive mortgage advertising practices, including ads that led consumers to believe that the company was affiliated with the U.S. government. According to the CFPB, RMK used the names and logos of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the FHA in mailed advertisements in such a way as to falsely imply that the ads were sent by the VA or FHA, or that the company or the mortgage products it advertised were endorsed or sponsored by those agencies. RMK’s ads also allegedly misrepresented the loans’ interest rates and estimated monthly payments, including whether the interest rate was fixed or variable. Consumers who called the ... Read More

Bureau Blocks Alleged ‘Robo-Call’ Phantom Debt Collection Operation

As the result of a lawsuit it filed late last month, the CFPB has obtained a preliminary injunction against what it characterized as the ringleaders of a “robo-call” phantom debt-collection operation, their companies and their service providers. According to the CFPB, the debt collectors, using various aliases, allegedly deployed automated calls to manipulate consumers in attempts to collect debt the consumers did not owe to them, and in most instances, to anyone else. The bureau alleges that the scheme depended on the participation of the telemarketing company that sent the robo-calls and payment processors that allowed the collectors to access consumers’ bank accounts. Named in the suit are New York resident Marcus Brown and Georgia resident Mohan Bagga, as well ... Read More

Mortgage Lenders Support Modifying CFPB Structure

The Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to House Republican leadership recently in support of three bills that would restructure the CFPB. The bills include H.R. 1266, the Financial Products Safety Commission Act, which would replace the CFPB’s single-director governance structure with a five-member commission. “A commission structure assures judicious consideration of a range of viewpoints in carrying out regulatory functions with appropriate involvement of representatives of both parties and a range of interests including those of both consumers and industry,” the MBA said. There is also H.R. 1261, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Accountability Act, which would subject the bureau to the congressional appropriations process. “It is important to note the legislation does not limit funding for the ... Read More

Congresswoman Says Bureau Needs to Create Clear Rules

Congresswoman Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, said that the CFPB can be a source of confusion for many in the mortgage industry. Although the overall idea of the bureau is sound, the implementation has been difficult, she said. “It’s been particularly frustrating for folks working in the industry,” she said at last week’s Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC. “Part of the frustration is that the CFPB is set up as an independent organization where Congress doesn’t have any kind of official oversight.” Sinema, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, believes there’s a lot of room for growth in terms of accountability with the bureau, and said creating clearer rules is a part of it. “One ... Read More

Warren Wants Auto Dealers’ Scalp, Says CFPB Should Get Oversight

The CFPB doesn’t have enough power as currently authorized under the Dodd-Frank Act and should be given oversight over auto dealers, according to the “mother” of the bureau, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA. “The consumer agency’s early results have been good for consumers and good for the economy as a whole, but there’s more to be done,” Warren said in a speech last week. “Right now, the auto loan market looks increasingly like the pre-crisis housing market, with good actors and bad actors mixed together.” As the senator sees it, the market is now “thick with loose underwriting standards, predatory and discriminatory lending practices,” and increasing repossessions. She then cited one study that estimated that these kinds of auto dealer markups ... Read More

CFPB Temporarily Suspends CC Issuer Submission Requirement

The CFPB temporarily put on hold a requirement that certain credit card issuers send their agreements to the bureau every quarter in order to facilitate posting on the agency’s own website. The final rule issued by the bureau last week suspends for one year credit card issuers’ obligations to submit their credit card agreements to the CFPB. Under the rule, credit card issuers will not be required to submit agreements that would otherwise have been due to the bureau by the first business day on or after April 30, July 31 and October 31 of 2015, and January 31, 2016. “During this time, the bureau will work to develop a more streamlined and automated electronic submission system,” the agency said. ... Read More

CFPB, Navajo Nation Act to Stop Alleged Tax-Refund Scheme

The CFPB and the Navajo Nation took joint action last week against companies and individuals who allegedly operated an illegal tax-refund scheme. The alleged scam was based on tax-preparation franchises steering low-income consumers, including many citizens of the Navajo Nation, toward high-cost tax-refund-anticipation loans, the bureau said. The complaint identified Jeffrey Scott Thomas, who through his company, J Thomas Development of NM, Inc., owned four H&R Block tax-preparation franchises in New Mexico. The bureau and the Navajo Nation did not find that H&R Block participated in this scheme, the CFPB said, and H&R Block terminated its relationship with those franchises, which then closed in September 2014. “Before they closed, the tax franchises catered largely to low-income citizens of the Navajo ... Read More

Investors Suggest Different Focus For CFPB on ‘Mini-Corr’ Lenders

A group of investors who purchased more than $8 billion in loans from mini-correspondents in 2014 responded to the CFPB’s “mini-corr” guidance and suggested the bureau use somewhat different questions when trying to determine if an entity under review has in fact made the transition from mortgage broker to correspondent lender. According to a copy of the materials sent to the bureau and obtained by Inside the CFPB, the first question the investors suggested was, when does the sales transaction take place when a loan is sold by a lender to an investor? To ensure that a transaction in question truly occurs as a sale in the secondary market, as opposed to a table-funded transaction, several steps should transpire, the ... Read More

CFPB Issues Guidance on DFA Housing Counselor Requirement

The CFPB put out a final interpretive rule last week on how lenders should provide mortgage applicants with a list of local homeownership counseling organizations. Lenders may fulfill this Dodd-Frank Act requirement by using bureau-developed housing counseling lists, which are available via an online tool the CFPB created in 2013, or by generating their own lists using the same Department of Housing and Urban Development data the bureau uses to build its lists. The interpretive rule restates guidance the CFPB issued in 2013, and provides further guidance for lenders who are building their own lists of housing counselors. In response to questions the CFPB has received, the guidance also includes new instructions about how to provide applicants abroad with homeownership ... Read More

Consumer Mortgage Complaints Close to Free Fall in First Quarter

Mortgage-related complaints to the CFPB are falling through the floor on just about every key metric, according to the latest analysis of bureau data by Inside the CFPB, fueled mostly by a plunging in gripes about loan modifications. The data reflect the depressed levels of mortgage originations in recent years as well as a continued rebound in home price appreciation. The plunge is most notable when comparing first-quarter 2015 numbers with the same period last year. For instance, total consumer gripes about their home loans fell 33.5 percent in 1Q15 versus 1Q14. The fall in belly-aching about loan mods was even more dramatic, down 38.6 percent, the data show.Consumer criticisms about mortgage servicing also declined markedly but not quite ... Read More

Looking Ahead/Worth Noting

CFPB Community Bank Advisory Council Meeting April 22. CFPB Director Richard Cordray plans to discuss credit scores and credit reporting and the related implications for community banks when the bureau convenes the next meeting of its Community Bank Advisory Council on April 22, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., in Washington, DC. The event is scheduled to be held at the bureau’s location at 1275 First Street, N.E., and is open to the public, but an RSVP is required to attend. CFPB to Hold Research Conference May 7-8. The CFPB plans to host its first research conference May 7-8, 2015. The conference will focus on high-quality consumer finance research, with academic and government researchers presenting their research papers. “The goal ... Read More

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