Archive

Legislative Update

On March 6, the House of Representatives took action on several banking related bills. As typical the bills next go to the Senate. The Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act (H.R. 2226) passed by voice vote. It would provide a “qualified mortgage” safe harbor for all loans held in portfolio for institutions under $10 billion in assets. The Comprehensive Regulatory Review Act (H.R. 4607) passed by a vote of 264 to 163. It would ensure […]

LAST MINUTE REVISIONS TO REGULATION Z SERVICING RULES

On March 6, 2018 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule to help mortgage servicers communicate with certain borrowers facing bankruptcy. The revisions to Regulation Z give mortgage servicers more latitude in providing periodic statements to consumers entering or exiting bankruptcy, as required by the Bureau’s 2016 mortgage servicing rule. The 2016 mortgage servicing rule requires that servicers send modified periodic statements or coupon books to certain consumers in bankruptcy starting April 19, 2018. […]

HOUSE PASSES BILLS TO ELIMINATE THE “MADDEN ISSUE”

In 2016 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’(NY, Connecticut, and Vermont) recent decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC held that a nonbank entity taking assignment of debts originated by a national bank is not entitled to protection under the National Bank Act (“NBA”) from state-law usury claims. Apparently, the Court did not considered the “Valid-When-Made Doctrine”—a longstanding principle of usury law that if a loan is not usurious when made, then it does not […]

REPORT ON IMPACT OF 2017 CHANGES TO CREDIT REPORTS

On February 23, 2018 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published the February 2018 Quarterly Consumer Report Trends, entitled Public Records. The CFPB also published an article summarizing the significant conclusion of the report. The report concludes that the lack of public records information has had minimal effect on credit scores. Effective July 1, 2017 The three nationwide credit reporting companies—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – removed civic public records that did not meet stricter standards for […]

HMDA GETTING IT RIGHT IS BACK

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has released an updated and expanded version of the publication A Guide to HMDA Reporting – Getting it Right (aka the HMDA bible). The publication had not been updated since 2013. The 327-page 2018 Guide is updated for the revisions to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) that were effective January 1, 2018. The Guide includes the  revised […]