Tag Archives: Dodd-Frank Reform Act

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), laid out the agency's aims to reform mortgage lending standards before a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday. Speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, Cordray acknowledged that although the Dodd-Frank Act has had a hand in improving most consumer lending markets, tight mortgage lending standards have kept creditworthy borrowers out of homes.

Financial reform advocates have two birthdays to celebrate on Saturday. This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the watchdog Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the two-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act, the sweeping financial reform law that spawned it. Their stories run parallel to each other – and rightly so. The consumer bureau squeaked past partisan gridlock this time last year, just one year after Democrats, then in the majority of both houses of Congress, cleared Dodd-Frank for the president’s signature.

Lake Research Partners released the results of an opinion poll showing that financial reforms enacted in recent years remain popular with potential voters. In light of events leading to 2008's financial meltdown, potential voters seem to overwhelmingly favor financial reform laws designed to prevent abuse. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents favor the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, while only 20 percent expressed disagreement.

Lawmakers released a damning report Thursday that found Countrywide Mortgage deployed 17,979 loans to peddle influence with elected officials, stall GSE reform, and solicit exclusive access for Fannie Mae and the ultimately doomed mortgage unit over the course of more than a decade. The 136-page report ties off an investigation into the so-called ""Friends of Angelo"" circle that in some cases allegedly supplied mortgages free of upfront fees, origination points, and default penalties to influential insiders and power-brokers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faces a new legal challenge as a Texas community bank and two conservative groups launch a lawsuit to undo it and the financial reform law that created it two years ago. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the CFPB and Dodd-Frank Act, as well as Richard Cordray's appointment. A spokeperson for the CFPB said the lawsuit appears to dredge up old arguments that have already been discredited.

The Systemic Risk Council, a volunteer group led by former FDIC chair Sheila Bair, will meet in June to monitor and encourage regulatory reform of U.S. capital markets focused on systemic risk. The council, formed by CFA Institute and The Pew Charitable Trusts, is an assembly of experts in investments, capital markets, and securities regulation.

The CFPB, created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, is seeking to clarify procedures that would be used when examining nonbank activity. The bureau launched its nonbank supervision program in January this year as an extension of its bank supervision authority. The proposed rule defines procedures involved in notifying a nonbank that it is being considered for supervision by the CFPB based on reasonable cause.

The House Financial Services Committee signed off on legislation Wednesday that would repeal bailout funds under the Dodd-Frank Act and more than half the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) budget. Clearing the legislation by a party-line vote, committee members billed it as a way to slash $35 billion from the national deficit.

In response to mortgage servicing rules the Consumer Financial Protection announced it may propose, Fitch Ratings issued a statement and said it believes mortgage servicers will incur increased operational, compliance, and reporting expenses if the rules take effect. To create more transparency, the CFPB said it is considering rules which require clear monthly mortgage statements, a warning before interest rates adjust, options to avoid ""force-placed"" insurance, and early information to keep customers out of foreclosure.

The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) petitioned the Fed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to overturn a regulation that allows appraisers to be paid a fraction of what can be defined as a customary and reasonable fee, a release from the AGA stated. In 2010, Dodd-Frank rules were enacted to establish certain requirements for appraisals, including one to “ensure that creditors and their agents pay customary and reasonable fees to appraisers,” according to the Dodd-Frank website. But last year, the Fed introduced a new law that the AGA views as undermining the original Dodd-Frank requirement.