- HUD, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor released “Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration (VHPD) Evaluation Final Report” evaluating a program designed by Silber & Associates and the Urban Institute.
- CFPB released report on student loan financing finding that the current collective student loan debt is at $1.2 trillion, the second largest form of consumer debt behind mortgages.
- The Commerce Department released report on consumer spending, which showed that it was largely driven by housing and healthcare.
Tag Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released a tool to measure financial well being, it is a scale of ten questions which financial educators can use to gauge financial well being more precisely and it builds off of the definition of financial well being which the CFPB released in January 2015.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- EB-5 fraud case will get a jury trial contrary to the request from the SEC. The court rejected the SEC’s attempt to block it claiming it came too late.
- Wells Fargo settles with a group of homeowners for $25.7 million in a RICO class action for unnecessary property inspections and charging delinquent borrowers.
- AARP backs the CFPB’s $109 million fine of PHH Mortgage Corp. for allegedly making mortgage kickbacks, citing to CFPB’s enforcement power.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its Rulemaking Agenda for Fall 2015, included is an estimate that the new mortgage servicing rules, proposed in November 2014, are estimated to be finalized by June 2016.
- The Chairman of the White House Counsel of Economic Advisers, Jason Furman, delivered a speech at the Urban Institute, entitled Barriers to Shared Growth: The Case of Land Use Regulation and Economic Rents in which he argues that land use restrictions such as tough zoning regulation exacerbate inequality and stifle development.
- New York City Mayor de Blasio has recently announced plans to spend $3 billion on supportive housing development for the homeless and victims of domestic violence.
Friday’s Government Reports Roundup
- According to an October 2015 Department of Labor report, 271,000 jobs were added to the US economy in the month of October and the unemployment rate decreased to 5% from 5.1% in September.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its ninth edition of its “Supervisory Highlights”, reporting illegal practices that the CFPB discovered between May and August 2015, including mortgage origination and servicing and student loan servicing, among others.
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released report “Realizing the Housing Voucher Program’s Potential to Enable Families to Move to Better Neighborhoods”.
CFPB Mortgage Highlights Fall ’15
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its Fall 2015 Supervisory Highlights. In the context of mortgage origination, the CFPB found that
supervised entities, in general, effectively implemented and demonstrated compliance with the rule changes, there were instances of non-compliance with certain [rules] . . .. There were also findings of violations of disclosure requirements pursuant to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), implemented by Regulation X; the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), implemented by Regulation Z; and consumer financial privacy rules, implemented by Regulation P. (9, footnotes and sources omitted).
Specifically, it found that one or more entities failed to
- “fully comply with the requirement that charges at settlement not exceed amounts on the good faith estimate by more than specified tolerances.” (10)
- comply with the regulations governing HUD-1 settlement statements because of fees on the HUD-1 did match those on invoices; improper calculations on the HUD-1; and fees charged for services that were not provided, among other things.
- provide required disclosures.
- reimburse borrowers for understated APRs and finance charges, as required by Regulation Z.
In the context of mortgage servicing, the CFPB found that while it
continues to be concerned about the range of legal violations identified at various mortgage servicers, it also recognizes efforts made by certain servicers to develop an adequate compliance position through increased resources devoted to compliance. . . . Supervision continues to see that the inadequacies of outdated or deficient systems pose considerable compliance risk for mortgage servicers, and that improvements and investments in these systems can be essential to achieving an adequate compliance position. (15)
This is all well and good, but as I have noted before, it is hard to estimate how much of a problem exists from such a report — one or more entities did this, we are concerned about a range of legal violations of that . . .. I understand that the CFPB’s primary audience for this report are CFPB-supervised entities concerned with the CFPB’s regulatory focus, but this approach barely rises to the level of anecdote for the rest of us.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- Federal judge grants the SEC request for appointment of a receiver for the $136 million EB-5 fraud case involving Path America LLC and its two subsidiaries to monitor the companies to ensure their assets are not lost during the proceedings.
- Ninth Circuit affirms JPMorgan Chase Bank’s win in $15.7 million suit against Meritage Homes Corp. over loan repayment.
- The CFPB brought suit against a law firm that does foreclosure work alleging that it scammed struggling homeowners by imposing large advance fees and failing to provide promised legal representation. The firm argues that the court should not grant the CFPB an early win because the bureau is attempting to create new federal law rather than enforcing current state law.
