Standard & Poor’s emerged as the top rating service in both non-agency MBS and non-mortgage ABS securitizations in 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking. S&P rated $8.91 billion of non-agency MBS last year, or 25.4 percent of total issuance. Rating information is not available on most scratch-and-dent transactions and re-securitizations that are typically issued as private placements. S&P’s market share was down from 40.0 percent of non-agency MBS issued in 2013, when there were more transactions with multiple ratings. DBRS, which reports its ratings on re-securitizations, actually was involved...[Includes two data charts]

Last week, the CFPB ordered Continental Finance Company, LLC, a subprime credit card originator, marketer and servicer based in Newark, DE, to refund approximately $2.7 million to consumers who were charged allegedly illegal fees. The bureau also imposed a $250,000 civil penalty on Continental. The CFPB alleged that Continental “engaged in deceptive acts or practices by making false statements regarding certain fees charged consumers in connection with credit cards,” and by “representing, expressly or impliedly, that certain security deposits consumers provided for certain credit cards” would be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The company also violated the Truth in Lending Act and its implementing Regulation Z by requiring some consumers to pay fees exceeding the 25 percent limit ...

Numerous current and former heavily indebted student borrowers who attended schools previously owned by Corinthian Colleges will see the outstanding amount they owe reduced by 40 percent, under the terms of a deal struck by the CFPB, the Department of Education and ECMC Group, the new owner of a number of the schools. The total debt relief amounts to $480 million. Back in September, the CFPB sued Corinthian Colleges Inc. for allegedly luring tens of thousands of students to take out private loans, known as “Genesis loans,” to cover expensive tuition costs by advertising bogus job prospects and career services. The bureau also alleged that Corinthian used illegal debt collection tactics to strong-arm students into paying back those loans while ...

Following up on a lawsuit it filed late last year, the CFPB last week filed a proposed consent order with a federal district court to require a Texas-based company, Union Workers Credit Services, to pay a penalty of $70,000, and to permanently ban it from offering any consumer credit products or services.The bureau alleges Union Workers duped thousands of consumers into signing up for a sham credit card. The CFPB is tapping its authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to allege unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices on the part of the company. The complaint also alleges violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In December 2014, the CFPB sued the company over allegations that ...

The CFPB should ban the collection of debts on which the statute of limitations has expired, according to a new report from the National Consumer Law Center on “zombie debt.” “In light of the serious harm to consumers caused by time-barred collections, we urge the CFPB to prohibit all collection of time-barred debt – whether through litigation or non-litigation means – as unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices,” said the NCLC. This prohibition should apply to creditors, debt collectors and debt buyers.The CFPB has authority to make rules “necessary or appropriate” to its ability to enforce the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and “to prevent evasions thereof,” the consumer group said. It also has general authority to issue “rules ...

In an effort to help indebted students as they move into the workforce, the CFPB joined other federal regulators recently in issuing guidance on private student loans with graduated repayment terms at loan origination. “Financial institutions that originate private student loans may offer graduated repayment terms in addition to fixed amortizing terms to borrowers at the time of loan origination,” the guidance stated.Graduated repayment terms provide lower initial monthly payments early in the repayment period and phase in the amortization of the principal balance, it noted. “Graduated repayment terms may align a borrower’s income level with loan repayment requirements, provide flexibility to repay the debt sooner if a borrower’s income increases more quickly than projected, and may help long- ...

The CFPB recently sent letters to select private student loan lenders and servicers inquiring about their current and planned loan modification options. The letter is a follow-up to a meeting last year convened by CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to discuss ways for industry participants to offer more options, such as modified repayment plans, to help borrowers avoid default and increase the likelihood of full repayment. Federal financial regulators have offered repeated guidance encouraging industry to pursue these workout arrangements, and they have noted that they will not criticize financial institutions even if these loan modifications lead to adverse credit classifications, CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra said in the correspondence. “While certain market participants have ...

OIG Expects to Finish Nine Audits, Evaluations of the CFPB This Quarter. The CFPB’s Office of Inspector General has a batch of ongoing projects related to the bureau that it expects to complete sometime during the first quarter, according to the OIG’s latest work plan, released early this week.Among the projects are audits of the CFPB’s contract management process, its diversity and inclusion processes, and it headquarters renovation project. Other projects with a first quarter 2015 completion timeframe are audits of the CFPB’s public consumer complaint database, the bureau’s space-planning activities, and the CFPB’s Tableau system, an application used to develop, publish, and view business intelligence data. Also up for completion this quarter is an evaluation of the CFPB’s ...

As part of the growing attention the CFPB is paying these days to the marketing relationships between financial institutions and colleges and universities, the CFPB released for public comment a draft Safe Student Account Scorecard that offers information to institutions of higher learning when soliciting agreements from financial institutions to market safe and affordable financial accounts for their students.“The scorecard builds on prior work by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and is designed to help colleges evaluate the costs and benefits to students of a financial product based on information about its features and how it is marketed,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The bureau is seeking public input on the scorecard, which highlights four areas for schools to ...

Obama Vows Vetoes to Dodd-Frank Changes. President Barack Obama touted the Dodd-Frank Act during his recent State of the Union speech as well as the growth of the CFPB, and threatened a veto should the Republican-controlled Congress pass any additional fixes to Dodd-Frank. “Today, we have new tools to stop taxpayer-funded bailouts, and a new consumer watchdog to protect us from predatory lending and abusive credit card practices,” Obama said. “We can’t put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve got a system to fix. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of ...