The CFPB remains quite concerned about the risks consumers face from the sustained high volume of mortgage servicing transfers and issued new guidance that highlights what its examiners will pay keen attention to going forward. “The CFPB advises mortgage servicers that its examiners will be carefully reviewing servicers’ compliance with federal consumer financial laws applicable to servicing transfers,” the new guidance stated. These will include Regulation X under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, Regulation Z under the Truth in Lending Act, Regulation V under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s prohibitions on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs). At the top of ...
The American Bankers Association has weighed in once again on the CFPB’s proposed information collection request filed with the Office of Management and Budget to survey consumers about their experience with debt collection – this time asking it be shut down entirely. In its first comment on an earlier iteration of the bureau’s request, the ABA expressed general support for a consumer survey. However, the industry group identified “significant design and methodological concerns” and suggested changes to the survey instrument and its administration that the banking industry believes will improve the integrity and practical utility of the proposed information collection. Unfortunately, in the revised proposal, the CFPB responds “only perfunctorily to stakeholder comments and reflects very little real change to the ...
Officials from the CFPB jumped into the mortgage compliance weeds during a webinar last week to answer some industry questions about its Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, otherwise known as “TRID,” which takes effect in August of next year. Among the questions bureau staff discussed were a handful related to disclosure and re-disclosure timing. For instance, a number of industry representatives asked whether the seven-day waiting period before consummation that applies to loan estimates also applies to revised disclosures. “No, the seven-day waiting period is a Truth in Lending Act statutory waiting period that applies today to the initial TILA disclosures, and after August of next year, to the loan estimate provided after application ...
Flagstar in Talks with CFPB Over Alleged Loss Mitigation Violations. Flagstar Bancorp, the parent of the nation’s 17th largest residential servicer, disclosed in a new regulatory filing that it is in talks with the CFPB over alleged violations of federal law arising from the bank’s loss mitigation practices and default servicing operations dating back to 2011. Flagstar Bank FSB, which owns roughly $69 billion in mortgage servicing rights, said it has already provided the CFPB with documents and “other information” regarding the matter in response to a civil investigative demand. “While the bank intends to vigorously defend against any enforcement action that may be brought, it has commenced discussions with the CFPB staff to determine if a settlement can be ...
Bipartisan Legislation Would Increase Threshold for CFPB Supervision. Right before Congress took off for its summer recess, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana introduced S. 2732, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Examination and Reporting Threshold Act of 2014. The act would increase the current $10 billion asset threshold figure at which regulated depository institutions are subject to direct examination and reporting requirements of the CFPB to $50 billion. “The higher threshold would be substantially the same as the threshold for a bank to be designated ‘systemically important’ (i.e., assets of $50 billion or more),” said attorney Barbara Mishkin, of counsel with the Ballard Spahr law firm, in a recent client note. CBO Pegs ...