Most (86 percent) of U.S. banks and credit union respondents in a recent survey by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services ranked the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule as the top regulatory challenge facing their organizations. When asked about complying with the complex TRID rules, 32 percent of respondents cited “collaborating with stakeholders” as their top issue, while 24 percent identified “last-minute changes that trigger closing delays” as the top anticipated challenges. Another 17 percent cited “information technology preparedness” as the top challenge, while 18 percent were still unsure about the regulation’s greatest impact on their operations. Overall, concerns about regulatory compliance and risk management challenges rose 7 percent compared to WKFS’ survey from ...

CFPB Director Richard Cordray showed no sign of backing down when it comes to the bureau’s expanded scrutiny of and skepticism toward marketing services agreements as possible violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Speaking at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in San Diego, the director noted that his agency concluded from its enforcement experience that MSAs necessarily involve substantial legal and compliance risk for the parties to the agreements – whether they are lenders, brokers, title companies or real estate professionals. “We believe those risks are greater and less capable of being controlled by careful monitoring than mortgage industry participants may have recognized in the past,” said the director. “MSAs appear to create opportunities for parties to ...

With the brouhaha over the CFPB’s interest in the industry use of marketing services agreements growing, it is the bureau itself that is the biggest threat under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, a leading industry attorney charged last week. “The threat, in a few short words, is the CFPB,” said Donald Lampe, a partner with the Morrison & Foerster law firm, during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated publication. “The CFPB, before our eyes, is rewriting the law, rules and previous guidance on RESPA Section 8(c)(2), which is the exception to RESPA for bona fide payments for services actually rendered – not just for MSAs, but so far, MSAs have received the most attention,” he ...

CFPB Retracts Cordray’s Claim About Most Jumbo Mortgages Being Non-QMs. Questions from Inside Nonconforming Markets, an affiliated newsletter, compelled the CFPB to concede that Director Richard Cordray misspoke during a speech at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s recent annual convention in San Diego. In asserting that the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule hasn’t caused a significant reduction in mortgage originations, Cordray referenced jumbo loans, “most of which are non-QM loans,” he said. “While comprehensive data on the non-QM share of jumbo mortgages are not available, a number of data sources suggest that most jumbos are in fact QMs, not non-QMs,” Inside Nonconforming Markets went on to note. Three of the five largest jumbo lenders told the newsletter most of their jumbos are QMs, ...

Lender anxiety tied to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s crackdown on marketing services agreements is reaching a new fever pitch these days, while spreading to other sectors of the housing finance industry, namely home builders and Realtors. Industry officials interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past two weeks said title insurance affiliates owned by Realtors and home builders are a particular area of concern – namely pushing customers into using service providers in which they have an ownership stake. “I’ll tell...

First Mortgage Corp., Ontario, CA, this month completed its liquidation, selling its branch network and $6 billion of servicing rights to other firms, and winding down a 44-year-old business that catered to FHA borrowers with lower credit scores. Jean Ziroli-Kobielsky, a recruiter for the family-owned business, noted that it wasn’t fear of regulatory oversight that prompted her father and brother to sell FMC, it was technology: “Some of our technology systems were still using DOS,” she told Inside Mortgage Finance. (DOS, or disk operating system, was the precursor to the Microsoft Windows software line for PCs.) She said...

Mortgage bankers have been obsessed with regulation for the past five years, with good reason. Yet there was a sense at this week’s annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association that the industry is ready to move on. The natural turning point is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has wrapped up the major pieces of its rulemaking mandates from the Dodd-Frank Act. The new final rule on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting was released late last week, and the widely-dreaded integrated-disclosure requirements went into effect early this month. The so-called TRID still doesn’t sit...

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted 303-121 in favor of H.R. 3192, The Homebuyers Assistance Act. The legislation would provide the mortgage industry with a regulatory and legal safe harbor until Feb. 1, 2016, for mortgages originated in good faith under the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, otherwise known as TRID. The rule, designed to streamline the mortgage disclosures under the two laws, took effect Oct. 3, 2015, after nearly two years of notice from the CFPB. “The CFPB and House Republicans agree that a transitional period for TRID compliance which enables lenders to test their systems and ensures there is no large-scale disruption to mortgage lending is necessary,” said Rep. ...

ComplianceEase, an automated compliance solutions provider based in Burlingame, CA, has come out with an insurance-backed warranty program for loans that have been audited by its ComplianceAnalyzer solution. The program, called AssureCert, provides warranty coverage for compliance defects, including ones related to the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID) and the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage regulation, as well as federal and state consumer lending and high-cost laws and regulations. “The new QM and TRID rules have exposed lenders and investors to civil lawsuits, as well as fines and repurchase risk,” said John Vong, president of ComplianceEase. “Our insurance-backed AssureCert warranty will offer our clients – both large and small –additional protection and peace of mind.” The ...

Bank of America Pulls the Plug on All Marketing Services Agreements. Bank of America, the third-largest residential retail lender in the U.S., has pulled the plug on all marketing services agreements it has with realty firms, sibling publication IMFnews reported last week. The bank confirmed the move to the newsletter, noting that it will discontinue all “space rental agreement programs due to recent regulatory developments.” It added: “We expect our MSA agreements will conclude by Nov. 1, 2015, and we will terminate our lease agreements for space in accordance with their terms. While the decision to wind down our MSA and SRA programs was difficult, the end of these programs allows us to pursue different ways we might help builders ...