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Inside the CFPB

February 20, 2018

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Trump Budget Plan Envisions Major Restructuring of Consumer Bureau

The Trump administration has released a proposed fiscal year 2019 budget that envisions big changes for the CFPB. According to budget documents, the White House is proposing to restructure the bureau, limit its mandatory funding in 2019, and provide discretionary, congressional appropriations to fund the agency beginning in 2020. Many of the proposed changes would require revisions to the bureau’s charter by Congress that would likely face a difficult path to enactment ... Read More

Bureau Issues More Industry-Friendly Five-Year Strategic Plan

The CFPB under the leadership of Acting Director Mick Mulvaney last week issued its latest five-year plan that differs markedly from the previous one in that it takes a more industry-friendly posture than the last one that was issued back in 2013 under the Richard Cordray era. “If there is one way to summarize the strategic changes occurring at the bureau, it is this: we have committed to fulfill the bureau’s statutory responsibilities, but go no further,” Mulvaney said. “By hewing to the statute ... Read More

House of Representatives Passes GOP ‘TRID Improvement Act’

The House of Representatives last week voted 271-145 to approve targeted legislation to address the disclosure of certain charges in the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosure, or TRID. H.R. 3978, the TRID Improvement Act of 2017, would require the CFPB to allow for the calculation of discounted title insurance rates that companies may offer to consumers for policies that cover both the lender and the homeowner. The bill was introduced ... Read More

House Green Lights Revisions To Points and Fees Calculation

The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1153, “The Mortgage Choice Act,” legislation that would make two adjustments to the Truth in Lending Act definition of points and fees regarding title fees charged by affiliates of the lender. The bill aims to make more loans eligible for qualified-mortgage status by excluding points and fees paid for affiliated title charges and escrow charges for insurance and taxes. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, explained ... Read More

Will CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney Take White House Post?

The New York Times raised more than a few eyebrows last week when it reported that President Trump is considering having Mick Mulvaney step in as White House chief of staff in the wake of yet another high-level staff departure. Mulvaney currently has two major jobs – director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That unusual juggling act has generated some criticism from Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts ... Read More

Bureau Requests Public Input On Enforcement Processes

In another leg of CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s “call for evidence,” the agency has issued a request for feedback on its enforcement processes. The agency “is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist the bureau in assessing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its processes related to the enforcement of federal consumer financial law, and, consistent with the law, considering whether any changes to these processes would be appropriate,” it said ... Read More

CFPB Solicits Feedback On Supervision Processes

In addition to the formal request for information the CFPB issued on its enforcement processes, the agency also put out an RFI addressing its supervisory processes. “The bureau is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist in assessing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of its supervision program and whether any changes to the program would be appropriate,” the agency said. “This RFI will provide an opportunity for the public to submit feedback and suggest ... Read More

Small Mortgage Lender Groups Ask Mulvaney to Streamline Regulation

The Community Home Lenders Association and the Community Mortgage Lenders of America sent a joint letter to CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, asking for regulatory streamlining of smaller independent mortgage bankers (IMBs) through risk-based supervision, citing the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act. Specifically, their correspondence referenced a statutory requirement, Dodd-Frank subsection 1024(b)(2), under which the bureau is required to tailor its supervision of non-banks ... Read More

Seniors Had Fewer Mortgage-Related Complaints in 2017

Senior citizens filed significantly fewer complaints about their mortgage experiences in 2017, according to a new Inside the CFPB analysis of data compiled by the bureau. Seniors filed 2,966 mortgage complaints last year, down 44.6 percent from the 5,357 reported in 2016. Non-senior borrowers also submitted fewer mortgage complaints in 2017, but the decline was only 24.8 percent from the previous year. Most complaints from seniors over the past two years ... [Includes one data chart] Read More

Court Ruling Restores Legal Status Of Affiliated-Business Structures

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the CFPB wrongly interpreted the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act will have a huge impact on the mortgage market and the regulatory landscape, industry attorneys said. In a closely-watched case involving PHH Mortgage and its captive mortgage reinsurance unit, the court upheld the notion that the plain language of RESPA permits a bona fide payment by one settlement service provider to another if ... Read More

Other News in Brief: QM Bill, Mulvaney and Payday Lenders, Temporary Licenses for LOs, Pete Carroll Update

QM Portfolio Lending Legislation Would Cost CFPB $1 Million to Implement. Enacting H.R. 2226, the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act, introduced last April by Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, would cost the CFPB $1 million, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. “Using information from the CFPB, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2226 would increase direct spending by $1 million in 2019 for the agency to issue rules to implement ... [Includes four briefs] Read More

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