Tag Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Raj Date will replace Elizabeth Warren as special advisor to the secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) when Warren departs from the agency at the end of this month, Treasury said in a statement Tuesday. Warren is returning to her position as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

President Obama on Sunday announced his pick to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) - Richard Cordray, former attorney general for the state of Ohio. Cordray was selected to build out the Bureau's enforcement team in December. The president plans to formally nominate Cordray for the top post at the CFPB on Monday. His appointment must still be approved by the Senate.

At a hearing Thursday, two House Financial Services subcommittees came together to discuss the role of federal agencies in the creation of new mortgage servicing standards and settlements with the nation's largest mortgage servicers on foreclosure practices. Witnesses called for new universal standards for the servicing industry. ""Improving mortgage servicing will take both market reforms and regulatory reforms,"" said Mark Pearce of the FDIC.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) aims to avert at least one hitch in the home loan process that some market experts say started a whirlwind of mortgage delinquencies - ensuring consumers have a clear understanding of the cost associated with their mortgage. CFPB unveiled two prototypes for a new regulatory disclosure form Wednesday that the agency will begin testing this week. Each of the prototypes combines the two-page TILA disclosure and the three-page RESPA disclosure into a single, abbreviated form.

In the wake of the industry's robo-signing issues, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report urging the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make mortgage servicing standards a priority. After examining applicable laws and interviewing mortgage investors and other industry participants, the agency concluded that federal laws do not specifically address the foreclosure process, and as a result, oversight of servicers has been ""limited and fragmented.""

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday requested public comment on a proposed rule under Regulation Z that would require lenders to determine a borrower's ability to repay a mortgage before making the loan and would establish minimum mortgage underwriting standards. The revisions to the regulation, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), are in response to new consumer protection directives laid out by the Dodd-Frank Reform Act. The proposal provides four options for complying with the ability-to-repay requirement.

Attorneys general and federal regulators sat down with major servicers this week to discuss the details of the robo-signing settlement. Both sides have submitted their own version of what they believe a settlement should look like, and this week's meeting is just the first in what will likely be a long period of negotiations. Banks have repeatedly spoken out against what they believe to be terms that are too harsh and may even encourage moral hazard. Mortgage investors are also weighing in on the proposed terms.

Location, location, location. Elizabeth Warren says ""that's the real estate mantra, and the new consumer bureau is following the professional's lead."" The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced late last week that the future permanent headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be located at 1700 G Street, NW in Washington, D.C., just across the street from the White House complex.

The Federal Reserve said this week that it ""does not expect"" to finalize three pending rule changes under TILA that would have mandated new consumer disclosure requirements for mortgage loans. The Fed began crafting the new regulations more than a year ago in response to claims that borrowers did not understand the terms of the loans they were signing. However, rulemaking authority for TILA and jurisdiction over consumer disclosures is scheduled to transfer to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within a few months.

On Wednesday, Treasury announced its newest appointments for the leadership team of the Office of the General Counsel within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) implementation team. The CFPB will have statutory oversight of mortgage lending and the power to set new rules for home loans and other consumer-facing credit products. Len Kennedy will serve as general counsel, and Meredith Fuchs will serve as principal deputy general counsel. Roberto Gonzalez and Michael Gordon will serve as deputy general counsels.