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Inside the CFPB

February 27, 2017

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Appeals Court Gives CFPB a Win, Agrees to En Banc Rehearing

Could this be an omen of the decision to come? Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the CFPB’s request for an en banc rehearing in its controversial legal dispute, PHH Corp. v. CFPB. “Upon consideration of respondent’s [CFPB] petition for rehearing en banc, the briefs amici curiae in support of the petition, the response of the United States to the petition, the response of the petitioners [PHH Corp.] to the petition, the supplemental response of petitioners, and the vote in favor of the petition by a majority of judges eligible to participate, it is ordered the petition be granted,” 10 of the court’s 11 justices wrote in their ruling. One of ... Read More

Democrats, Advocates Again Ask to Intervene in PHH v. CFPB

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 ... Read More

State National Bank Plaintiffs Want In on En Banc Rehearing of PHH

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 ... Read More

CFPB Exams of Nonbank Mortgage Originators Jumped Last Year

The number of mortgage-related examinations by the CFPB declined in most areas tracked by Inside the CFPB last year – with one glaring exception: The bureau’s examinations of nonbank mortgage originators, which surged 69.2 percent, according to data provided to this newsletter under the Freedom of Information Act. Such supervisory activity on the part of the CFPB directed towards depository institutions, in comparison, fell 23.3 percent year over year, and plunged 66.7 percent from the third quarter of 2016 to the fourth. That being said, depositories have borne the bulk of the brunt of the bureau’s mortgage origination scrutiny, with 21 exams in 2014 versus just 7 for nonbanks that year. In 2015, the story was the same, with banks getting [with exclusive data chart] ... Read More

Bureau Eyeballing Altisource Over Services Provided to Ocwen

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 ... Read More

Judge Rules Harbour Portfolio Advisors Must Comply With CID

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 ... Read More

Ditching CFPB Mortgage Rules Would Hurt RMBS, Moody’s Warns

If federal policymakers do away with the CFPB’s mortgage rules without proper replacements, the credit quality of residential mortgage-backed securities could be compromised, analysts at Moody’s Investors Service said in a recent report. The analysts were providing a review of President Trump’s recent executive order related to the Dodd-Frank Act. “Any significant repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act’s mortgage-related provisions without effective alternatives would weaken residential RMBS credit quality because these provisions have strengthened the credit quality of mortgage originations, improved servicing practices and bolstered the credit integrity of RMBS structures,” the analysts said. The report is significant because it flies in the face of the traditional industry narrative that the bureau’s mortgage rules have been nothing but an onerous burden ... Read More

How to Accurately Estimate Property Taxes in Line with TRID

In a competitive mortgage market with increasingly knowledgeable and demanding borrowers, it is essential that originators implement proper processes and controls to produce accurate property tax data collection, analysis and estimation, according to an online blog posting by Dominique Lalisse, an analyst with CoreLogic. One of the critical components of the new loan origination process that has emerged under the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosure rule is property- tax amount estimation for residential properties, she pointed out. “The estimating process is conducted during the initial stages of origination in order to complete the required loan estimate (LE) provided to the borrower,” Lalisse said. “With increased scrutiny around the preparation of the LE, lenders must ... Read More

Maryland Looks to Exceed CFPB Standards for Servicing Transfers

Two years after first proposing a regulation addressing mortgage servicing rights transfers, the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation recently issued a revised iteration that could have a big effect on the mortgage servicing industry, according to attorneys with the Ballard Spahr law firm. According to a summary by the attorneys of the technical language of the proposed regulation, for any transfer of MSR involving at least 7,500 loans, the transferee servicer would have to report certain information to the commissioner at least 30 days before date of the transfer. Specifically, the transferee servicer would have to “report whether the transfer involves a subservicing agreement or an agreement for the sale of mortgage servicing rights; the names of the parties to ... Read More

HUD Reportedly Set to Begin Redlining Probe of CIT Group

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is apparently poised to begin an investigation of allegations of redlining on the part of CIT Group, Pasadena, CA, through its CIT Bank subsidiary, the successor to OneWest Bank, after agreeing to accept a complaint against the lender filed by the California Reinvestment Coalition. The CRC alleges the bank violated and continues to violate the Fair Housing Act by providing residential real estate-related transactions in a manner that discriminates on the basis of race, color and national origin. Specifically, the complaint alleges that since at least 2011, CIT Bank discriminated in marketing and originating housing-related products, as evidenced by the low number of mortgages it made to African-American, Asian-American and Latino borrowers in ... Read More

CFPB Begins Look at Alternative Data for ‘Credit Invisible’ Borrowers

The CFPB recently issued a request for information into ways to expand access to credit for consumers who are “credit invisible,” that is, those who don’t have enough credit history to generate a credit score. The bureau issued the RFI to drum up public feedback on “the benefits and risks of tapping alternative data sources such as bills for mobile phones and rent payments to make lending decisions about consumers whose lack of credit history might otherwise block opportunities.” According to the CFPB, there are 26 million Americans who are credit invisibles. “Another 19 million consumers have a credit history that has gone stale, or is insufficient to produce a credit score under most scoring models,” said the agency. The ... Read More

Other News in Brief

Another Trump Executive Order Targets Regulatory Red Tape. Late last week, President Trump signed another executive order focused on government regulations – this one requiring every agency to establish a regulatory reform task force to eliminate red tape. ... ABA Offers CFPB Some Suggestions to Protect Shared Consumer Data. The American Bankers Association recently had some advice for the CFPB for protecting consumers’ financial information that is being voluntarily shared with third-party data aggregators.... Read More

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