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Inside the CFPB

October 3, 2016

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Life Under TRID: TRID 2.0 Continues to Raise a Host of Questions and Concerns

Rank-and-file mortgage lending industry participants continue to submit to the CFPB a range of problems and issues they are encountering with the bureau’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure Rule, commonly known as TRID, and its clarifying rulemaking.One credit union official wrote that members (and borrowers served by community banks) are being coached by loan officers to “be patient and trust” that their final fees will be lower than what is shown on the loan estimate (LE). And the larger issue is that consumers are becoming less engaged in understanding their finances due to the complexities of the rule, she said. “Somehow, in trying to make lending conditions better for the consumer, something far worse ... Read More

Are ALTA and Its Members Going to ‘Break the Internet’ Over TRID 2.0?

One of the fascinating things about sifting through all of the 1,200+ industry comments on the CFPB’s TRID clarifying proposed rulemaking as they are posted on the regulations.gov website is to notice the success the American Land Title Association and its membership are having in flooding the agency’s inbox with their concerns. The overwhelming majority of individual comment letters submitted to the CFPB to date all start with the same introductory language, including the reproduction of a typo, as follows: “I am [sic] title insurance professional and I am contacting you today about the proposed rulemaking on TRID. As a settlement agent, it’s important that I am not penalized for compliance errors made by a lender.” This suggests that commenters ... Read More

TRID Confusing or Alienating Borrowers, ALTA Survey Finds

With the one-year anniversary of the CFPB’s TRID rule now upon us, a new survey from the American Land Title Association finds that a vast swath of the homebuying population is either confused or feels taken advantage of by the calculation of title insurance fees on the new mortgage disclosures. Among the survey’s chief findings, 40 percent of consumers are confused by the new closing disclosure calculation of title insurance. “Under TRID, consumers are disclosed a price for their two title insurance policies that is different than the actual price they will pay at closing,” ALTA said. Also, homeowners want a detailed breakdown of all the costs for a service, the survey found. “At the closing table, homebuyers expect the ... Read More

TRID Compliance Reviews Now Underway at CFPB, Other Agencies

Official regulatory reviews for compliance with the CFPB’s TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule are now underway at the bureau and among the prudential regulators, according to top industry attorneys. Speaking during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner with the BuckleySandler law firm in Washington, DC, stated, “We can confirm that, yes, the CFPB and the other regulators, as part of their mortgage origination exams, are including TRID modules and looking at TRID compliance.” He reminded the audience that the bureau has been emphatic that these will be diagnostic reviews. “I haven’t seen anything inconsistent with that with respect to the reviews of our clients out of the CFPB,” Olson said... Read More

CFPB Signs Off on Revised Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac URLA

The CFPB, under its authority to administer the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, has bestowed its official approval upon the revised and redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application, the standardized form used by borrowers to apply for a mortgage loan, issued earlier this year by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issuance of the 2016 URLA was part of the effort by the two government-sponsored enterprises to update the corresponding Uniform Loan Application Dataset (ULAD). Staff of the CFPB has reviewed the 2016 URLA as per a request by the two GSEs and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, their regulator and conservator, for official approval under ECOA and Regulation B. Regulation B Section 1002.5(b) provides rules concerning requests for ... Read More

Bureau Approves Collection of HMDA Ethnicity, Race Data in 2017

The CFPB has formally authorized the collection of expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act information on race and ethnicity, as per the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, in 2017. “At any time from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017, a creditor may, at its option, permit applicants to self-identify using disaggregated ethnic and racial categories as instructed in appendix B to Regulation C, as amended by the 2015 HMDA final rule,” the bureau said in a Sept. 29, 2016, notice in the Federal Register. During this period, a lender permitting applicants to self-identify using these categories shall not be deemed to violate Regulation B Section 1002.5(b). Further, the lender shall also be deemed to be in compliance with ... Read More

Dodd-Frank Mortgage Rules Benefitted Wealthy, Professors Say

Two academics assert in a new white paper that the Dodd-Frank Act mortgage rules promulgated by the CFPB that were designed to protect consumers actually harmed middle-class borrowers and benefitted the wealthy. “Dodd-Frank aimed at reducing mortgage fees and abuses against vulnerable borrowers, but increased the costs of originating mortgages,” said University of Maryland professors Francesco D’Acunto and Alberto Rossi in their new paper. “We find it triggered a substantial redistribution of credit from middle-class households to wealthy households.” A back-of-the-envelope calculation that keeps constant the mortgage demand characteristics of 2010 shows financial institutions reduced their production of medium-sized loans by 15 percent in 2014, and increased making large loans by 21 percent, they said. D’Acunto and Rossi also found ... Read More

Credit Union Mortgage Originations ‘Thriving’ Under CFPB Regime

CFPB Director Richard Cordray appeared before credit union representatives recently and touted the performance of their industry’s mortgage operations under the bureau’s mortgage rules. “Our first set of mortgage rules have been in place for over two and a half years, and we are seeing great progress,” Cordray told the National Association of Federal Credit Unions. “In 2014, the first year of our ability-to-repay rule on mortgage origination, owner-occupied home purchase mortgages increased by 4 percent, according to HMDA data, and growth was even stronger last year: home purchase mortgages increased by an estimated 13 percent to 14 percent.” In fact, as it turns out, the mortgage industry overall actually did slightly better than Cordray said. According to analysis of ... Read More

Community Bank Mortgage Lending Is Up, But May Recede: Fed/CSBS

Mortgage lending at community banks rose last year and is up over the last few years, according to a joint survey by the Federal Reserve and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. However, that trend may not hold, thanks in part to a drop in demand and to a departure from the sector because of the CFPB’s mortgage rules. “Mortgage lending grew by more than 6 percent for community banks in our survey, which was somewhat higher than the comparable growth rate for all community banks over an overlapping period,” the agencies said. It was also higher than the comparable rate across the entire industry. Over a more-extended period, from December 2013 to March 2016, growth in 1-4 family residential ... Read More

Mortgage Complaints to the CFPB Fell Again During the Third Quarter

Further empirical confirmation of a recovering mortgage market continued to accumulate at the CFPB during the third quarter, as related consumer complaints dropped 19.8 percent, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. For the first nine months of 2016, consumer gripes about their mortgages fell 8.4 percent compared to the same time period the year before. Criticisms about mortgage servicing fell 21.8 percent quarter-over-quarter and 2.0 percent year-over-year, the data show.... Read More

Enforcement Roundup: CFPB Fines TMX Finance $9 Million Over Lending, Collection Practices

Last week, the CFPB brought a $9 million enforcement action against Savannah, GA-based TMX Finance, the parent company of TitleMax, accusing the company of luring consumers into costly loan renewals by presenting them with misleading information about the deals’ terms and costs. The CFPB said that employees of the auto title lender, as part of their sales pitch for the company’s 30-day loans, offered consumers a monthly option for making loan payments. They then offered consumers a “Voluntary Payback Guide” that showed how to repay the loan with smaller payments over a longer time period.... Read More

Bureau Sues Five Auto Title Lenders Over APR Disclosure Practices

The CFPB last month sued five auto title lenders doing business in Arizona – Auto Cash Leasing, Interstate Lending, Oasis Title Loans, Phoenix Title Loans and Presto Auto Loans – for allegedly failing to disclose the annual percentage rate in online advertisements about title loans, in violation of the Truth in Lending Act. “For example, one lender advertised on its website a monthly interest rate but failed to include the legally required annual percentage rate for the loan,” the bureau said.... Read More

CFPB Slaps Flurish/LendUp With $3.6 Million in Refunds and Fine

Last week, the CFPB brought a $3.6 million enforcement action against San Francisco-based online lender Flurish, doing business as LendUp, for allegedly failing to deliver the promised benefits of its products. The bureau said it found that the company did not give consumers the opportunity to build credit or provide access to cheaper loans, as it claimed to consumers it would.... Read More

Bureau Sues Prime Marketing Holdings Over Consumer Charges

The CFPB filed a lawsuit in federal district court last month against Prime Marketing Holdings, a credit repair company based in Van Nuys, CA, for allegedly charging consumers a series of illegal advance fees as well as for misrepresenting the cost and effectiveness of its services. According to the bureau’s complaint, Prime Marketing Holdings lured consumers with misleading, unsubstantiated claims ... Read More

Other News in Brief

SFIG Meets With CFPB Officials to Discuss TRID. Staff and key members of the Structured Finance Industry Group, a securitization trade group, recently met with regulators at the CFPB to discuss the bureau’s integrated disclosure rule known in as TRID and reviewed the trade group’s RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) 3.0 TRID Compliance Review Scope document.... CFPB Releases Updated Exam Procedures for the Military Lending Act. Late last week, the bureau issued the revised procedures its examiners will use in identifying consumer harm and risks related to the Military Lending Act rule, which was updated in July 2015... Read More

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