The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked the Office of Management and Budget to review a draft final rule that would establish major requirements for guaranteed cash-out refinance loans. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which reformed the Dodd-Frank Act, gave VA the authority to regulate cash-out refis. The agency has 180 days from enactment to promulgate regulations. The final rule sets the parameters of VA cash-out home loans, to include defining net tangible benefit, recoupment and seasoning requirements. The Dodd-Frank reform act and Ginnie Mae have established similar requirements for Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. IRRRLs and, to a much lesser extent, cash-out refis came under scrutiny due to loan churning or serial refinancing. Last year, a small group of lenders targeted servicemembers and veterans with VA loans to ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin a new rulemaking on qualified mortgages to conform to Dodd-Frank reform act mandates. Observers say the move is simply housekeeping, since the previous QM interim final rule (IFR) requirements were rendered moot with the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act back in May. The new law, also known as the Dodd-Frank reform act, superseded the previous rule’s seasoning and recoupment requirements for VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. Specifically, the act removed the category of rebuttable presumption for IRRRLs deemed as QM under the interim final rule. It also imposed new requirements that were not considered at the time the IFR was issued. The VA did not say whether changes were made ...

The CFPB recently settled with Bluestem, Eden Prairie, MN, over allegations that the group of firms unfairly delayed payment transfers to third-party debt buyers. The settlement will require the companies to pay a civil money penalty of $200,000. The CFPB alleged that the Bluestem companies, between 2013 and 2016, delayed forwarding payments for more than 31 days in 18,000 instances. In 3,500 of those instances, Bluestem allegedly delayed [Includes four briefs] ...

FHA Issues Waiver of Property Inspections in Disaster-Stricken California Counties. FHA has issued a waiver of its timing policy for completing property inspections prior to closing or endorsing a loan for FHA insurance. The waiver is in effect in presidentially declared major disaster areas in Lake and Shasta Counties, CA, that were ravaged by wildfires and high winds. FHA believes that the wildfires and high winds have stabilized so as not to cause any further damage to properties, even though FEMA has not declared “all clear” in the affected areas. The waiver allows damage inspections to be completed after Oct. 2, for properties located in the PDMDA. NC Commissioner of Banks Amends State Reverse Mortgage Rules. The North Carolina Commissioner of Banks recently amended its ...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, has raised ethical questions about Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney’s recent appearance at a “closed-door event” where he reportedly discussed midterm elections with Republican officials and donors. Warren, a harsh Mulvaney critic, said his attendance at the event in New York City on Sept. 8 may have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits certain employees in the executive branch of the federal government from engaging ...

While the CFPB is responsible for ensuring fairness to American consumers in their financial affairs, the agency is now facing workplace discrimination and retaliation charges from former and current agency employees. A class action complaint was filed against the CFPB and Acting Director Mick Mulvaney in September, alleging discrimination and retaliation against minority and female workers. The complaint was filed to the U.S. District Court for the ...

CFPB to Open Office in Atlanta, Likely to Relocate Over 100 Employees. The CFPB recently announced plans to open a new office in Atlanta as its southeast regional headquarters. The relocation is expected to take place in late 2019. The southeast regional team is currently housed in the bureau’s DC headquarters. The CFPB said the relocation will align the bureau with its regulatory partners that already have a regional presence in Atlanta [Includes two briefs] ...

The CFPB is creating a “disclosure sandbox” as its most recent step to encourage fintech innovation. Many are expecting the bureau to tackle the flawed no-action letter policy next. The CFPB recently published a revised policy for its trial disclosure program in the Federal Register. The new policy would streamline the application process, establish procedures for extending successful trial disclosure programs, and allow the CFPB to coordinate with sandbox ...

Three months after the CFPB fired all the members on its three advisory boards, the agency has reconstituted the panels with fewer members serving shorter terms. The CFPB recently announced nine members for the Consumer Advisory Board, down from 25 during former Director Richard Cordray’s tenure in the agency. Only one of nine comes from the consumer advocacy world – Liz Coyle, executive director at Georgia Watch, which describes itself ...

A community bank in Texas and two DC-based nonprofit groups recently filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the CFPB’s sole-director structure. The State National Bank of Big Spring, 60 Plus Association, and Competitive Enterprise Institution originally filed a lawsuit in 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the CFPB’s structure violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers. The district ...