News By Edition

Amid the buzz about community banks partnering with fintech startups and myriad discussions about how the industry should approach new innovations and regulatory changes, Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey sat down with Dodd Frank Update at ICBA Live 2019 to explain in her own words what the organization has in the works.

Romero Rainey spoke to the expansiveness of ICBA’s Focus 2020 policy platform, as well as her organization’s push for community banks and fintechs to become partners.

Find out more details about what was discussed during the interview.

Wells Fargo President and CEO Tim Sloan announced his retirement on Thursday after 31 years with the country’s third-largest bank.

His decision comes two and a half years after he took over for former CEO John Stumpf, following his resignation in October 2016, and only weeks after answering for the company’s myriad of legal and regulatory compliance issues before Congress.  

Find out more details about his decision and what it means for the company.

As the Senate Banking Committee engaged in discussion regarding potential housing finance reforms, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum outlining his administration’s goals for enacting sweeping reforms to the secondary market.

The financial services industry expressed support for the administration’s stated goals of ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and promoting competition in the secondary market while providing taxpayer protections.

Find out more details about the administration’s reform priorities and the industry’s take on the matter.

The agenda for the Consumer Bankers Association’s (CBA) 2019 annual convention in Washington D.C. includes a slew of sessions diving into the potential benefits of technological innovations from a regulatory and business growth perspective.

Dodd Frank Update will be there, April 1-3, offering live updates from sessions featuring federal regulators, as well as various industry insiders, including top banking executives from Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Huntington, Fifth Third Bank, PNC and more.

Read on to learn more about our coverage plans for CBA Live 2019.

Nearly six months after naming him acting CEO, Fannie Mae announced that it would be removing the word “acting” from Hugh Frater’s title, effective March 26.

Frater, who has served on the Fannie Mae board since 2016, was tapped to take up interim CEO duties upon the retirement of Tim Mayopoulos, who stepped down from the role last October.

Find out more about the appointment.

As talk of potential legislative action to reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) persists in Congress, financial trade associations have put forth their own list of recommendations for improving the bureau and its rule and regulations.

A recent letter from Consumer Bankers Association President and CEO Richard Hunt and a whitepaper released by the Mortgage Bankers Association detailed numerous suggestions for such changes.

Find out specifics about what the trades have recommended and where there is overlap in those suggestions.

As part of its effort to improve its technology designed to help mortgage lenders, the mortgage industry’s standards organization (MISMO) is working to expand its JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) initiatives and is seeking industry feedback on the subject.

The announcement came a day after MISMO recommended the use of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) standard for documentation, implementation, execution and exchange of business rules and decisions across the mortgage industry.

Find out what both announcements could mean for the mortgage industry.

FormFree recently joined the Financial Data Exchange (FDX), a non-profit group that promotes information sharing and security standards for the financial sector.

Mortgage document preparation vendor International Document Services, Inc. (IDS), has augmented its flagship doc prep platform idsDoc to include full eClosing capabilities through a new service called ClickToClose, the company announced.

Apple announced that it has partnered with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard to release a credit card built into Apple’s digital wallet app on iPhone.

An entrance into the credit card business will make Apple a “covered person” under the Consumer Financial Protection Act and it will be required to comply with all applicable disclosure requirements and Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements, among others.

Learn more about the regulatory implications of Apple’s new product.

Pointing to key highlights in regulatory efforts to stop unlawful debt collection practices, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stated that it intends to issue a new notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on debt collection addressing issues such as communication practices and disclosure requirements.

The announcement comes more than five years after the CFPB’s first ANPR and nearly three years after the CFPB originally issued proposals. The report details what actions the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have taken to thwart violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Find out more details about the rulemaking and the information included in the report.

Referring to input gathered from current and former advisory committee members during her “listening tour” with industry stakeholders, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger has recommended changes to the CFPB’s Advisory Committees in terms of focus, meeting frequency and membership terms.

The bureau also announced that it will be accepting applications for new members.  

Find out more details about the changes coming to the committee.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voted 3-2 to finalize a rule impacting the de minimis exception on swaps entered into by insured depository institutions (IDI) in connection with consumer loans.

The rule has support from the banking industry but has raised two dissenting opinions within the CFTC.

Read on to find out more details about the rule.

Closepin recently launched a tool designed to assist mortgage lenders in conducting fully-digital closings, which allows lenders to search for eClosing-enabled title agents. Closepin was created by Westcor Global to perform automated compliance validation and wire instruction verification products.

Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc. recently announced its new one-time close construction-to-permanent loan program geared toward mortgage brokers and their borrower and builder clients.

Technology and innovation are two of the most ubiquitous words in the financial services industry, making it no surprise that the Independent Community Bankers of America’s (ICBA) 2019 annual conference in Nashville featured more sessions exploring topics connected to those terms than any other.

Although there was widespread agreement among community bankers in attendance that it is good practice to remain aware of what innovations their larger competitors are undertaking, they also recognize the value in sticking to what they do best.

Find out more takeaways Dodd Frank Update came across during the conference.

Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray and Rohit Chopra, who serves on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), were the keynote speakers during the University of Michigan’s two-day Consumer Protection in an Age of Uncertainty forum.

They offered warnings about the potential negative consequences to law-abiding businesses and consumers resulting from the loosening of federal consumer protection policies.

Find out more about their takes on the current state the regulatory environment.

Although the past year-and-a-half have seen several changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s policies and practices that have resonated positively with lenders and financial institutions of all business models, trade advocates still see room for improvement.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and the Consumer Bankers Association recently spelled out in writing a slew of recommended changes to the bureau’s rulemaking, enforcement and supervisory policies and practices.

Find out more details about what the banking industry’s largest trade organizations are recommending.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recently issued advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs that would implement a portion of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA) and address concerns raised by trade advocates.

PACE programs have been criticized by financial trade associations that argue they should be subject to the same federal consumer protection stipulations as other mortgage products.

Find out more details about the ANPR and what trade advocates have said about PACE programs.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently issued a bulletin to all entities it supervises with details indicating the data fields examiners will use to test and validate the accuracy and reliability of loan data collected in accordance with Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requirements as of 2018.

The bulletin outlines the different reporting requirements for banks mandated to comply with expanded HMDA reporting standards and those only responsible for reporting data required by the original HMDA rule.

Read on to learn more details about the bulletin.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) announced the election of its new chairman and its 2019-20 Executive Committee members during the final general session of the 2019 ICBA Live annual convention in Nashville.

Newly elected ICBA chairman Preston Kennedy, president and CEO of Zachary Bancshares Inc. in Zachary, La., also serves as chairman of the ICBA Executive Committee and board of directors and is an avid proponent of promoting new technology and other innovations in the community banking business, which was a theme throughout the conference.

Read on to learn more about Kennedy and the new committee members.

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) focusing on preventing consumer harm, as CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger stated in her annual report to Congress, companies may be tempted to assume that means the bureau will be spending more time distributing educational materials than looking for compliance violations.

However, that likely is not the case. In fact, the opposite may be true, Garris Horn PLLC Richard Horn told Dodd Frank Update.

Find out how the bureau is likely to go about its revised mission of preventing consumer harm.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) 18th Supervisory Highlights report, the first released since Kathy Kraninger became CFPB director, highlights observations the bureau’s examiners made about potential consumer harm related to automobile lending, deposits, mortgage servicing and remittances.

The report also highlights developments in the bureau’s supervision programs – Supervisory Recommendations – which it will use in addition to its Matters Requiring Attention supervisory tool.

Find out more about what is covered in the report.

Recognizing that more and more mortgage lenders are seeing the value in offering eClosings and working towards digitalizing the entire mortgage process, October Research LLC and Dodd Frank Update put together a webinar with two top-tier industry experts to answer common questions about what challenges lenders face when trying to get into the eMortgage business.

Fannie Mae Director of eMortgage Strategy and Operations Shane Hartzler and Pepper Hamilton LLP Special Counsel John Levonick offered insight about how lenders can address a multitude of those perceived barriers to getting started in the digital mortgage space and spelled out some of the benefits to doing so.

Read on to find out more details about what the experts discussed.

Financial trade associations weighed in on ways to potentially strengthen regulatory efforts to prevent financial crime through Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) policies ahead of a related hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee.

The groups also advocated for the creation of a national beneficial ownership registry to stem the misuse of shell corporations to conduct illegal activities.

Find out more details about what legislative proposals the industry supports.

With new leadership presiding over the festivities, and doing so on the heels of the release of the association’s new legislative and regulatory agenda, the Independent Community Bankers of America’s (ICBA) 2019 annual conference in Nashville promises to be a newsworthy event for the financial services industry.

Dodd Frank Update will be there, beginning March 18, to chronicle any news and fresh insight shared by event speakers and attendees, as well as interesting sights and sounds always present at one of the industry’s largest conferences.

Find out more details about what we will be covering.

The final day of the Ellie Mae Experience event in San Francisco kicked off with a conversation with a noted author and a mortgage market update from one of the leading names in the industry. 

Author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek sat down with Ellie Mae’s Joe Tyrrell, and Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Michael Fratantoni followed with an updated presentation on the market.

Read on for details from the event.

For lenders and compliance attorneys preparing to implement procedures necessary to comply with the government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) new Uniform Residential Loan Application (Form 1003), there are bound to be questions that come up along the way.

To provide answers, Dodd Frank Update invited DocMagic Chief Compliance Officer Gavin Ales and Garris Horn PLLC Partner Richard Horn to offer straight-forward, comprehensive explanations pertaining to a myriad of common questions about the new requirements in a recent webinar entitled “New Loan Application (URLA): Your Questions Answered.”

Read on to learn more about what insight the experts have to offer.

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently proposed to raise the minimum salary for employees to automatically qualify for overtime to a degree much less than its 2016 final rule on the matter.

The department’s previous proposal drew criticism from businesses and an injunction from a federal court. 

Find out more details about the new proposal to reform mandatory overtime regulations.

The House recently passed four bipartisan bills proposing policy changes that would impact bankers and mortgage professionals and certain federal agencies that regulate them.

The approved measures are: H.R. 758, the Cooperate with Law Enforcement Agencies and Watch Act; H.R. 974, the Federal Reserve Supervision Testimony Clarification Act; H.R. 1122, the Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act; and H.R. 1414, the FinCEN Improvement Act.

Learn more details about the proposed impacts of each measure.

MTS Software Solutions recently integrated its IntellaLend automated loan quality management and auditing technology, into Ellie Mae’s Encompass digital mortgage solution using Ellie Mae’s Encompass Partner Connect API technology. The integration allows lenders to more efficiently and securely share data between IntellaLend and Encompass to drive quality and efficiency in the loan origination process, according to a press release.

SocialSurvey named mortgage lender Embrace Home Loans first-place in customer satisfaction in its Top Mortgage Companies rankings. The rankings were based on customer satisfaction data among nearly 200 mortgage companies nationwide, according to a press release.

During her second congressional hearing in the span of a week, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger faced questions from the Senate Banking Committee about her views on data protection, predatory lending in the student loan and payday loan marketplaces and her views on Military Lending Act enforcement and supervision, among other matters.

Kraninger fielded several questions about the bureau’s policies on the collection and protection of consumer data, in both the public and private sectors.

Find out more details about the hearing.

Suggesting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) could better serve U.S. taxpayers by doing so, Rep. Blaine Luetkeyemer (R-Mo.) urged CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger to dismiss any pending enforcement actions in which consumer harm has not been identified during her recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

The fundamental problem with Luetkemeyer’s suggestion, former CFPB attorney and managing partner at Garris Horn PLLC Richard Horn told Dodd Frank Update, is that, as simple as it sounds, the reality of identifying whether consumer harm has occurred is anything but simple for the CFPB. 

Find out more about the complexities of making such determinations.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) recently voted unanimously to propose new interpretive guidance implementing an activities-based approach to designating non-bank entity as a systemically-important financial institution (SIFI).

The new approach would require the council to assess the potential risks an entity posed to the financial marketplace, conduct a cost-benefit analysis of such a designation and assess the likelihood that a non-bank entity would fail prior to finalizing a non-bank SIFI designation. 

Find out more details about proposed guidance.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently proposed to amend a pair of rules promulgated under the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) that would bring broad new requirements for financial institutions to protect the privacy and security of the customer information they hold. Both proposals are intended to align the FTC’s interpretations of the rules with those of other agencies.

In separate notices of proposed rulemaking, the FTC is seeking comments on proposed changes to enhance the effectiveness of the federal Safeguards Rule and the Privacy Rule, both of which implement portions of the GLBA.

Find out more details about the proposed amendments and what feedback the FTC is seeking.

Taking the next step in its project to modernize federal examination processes, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently issued a policy statement aimed at promoting clarity and consistency of reports of examination.

The principles include expectations for what information should be included in ROEs, as well as guidance on how that information should be presented to promote consistency, clarity and ease of reference, among other things.

Find out more details about the principles set forth in the new policy statement.

A partnership between Floify, a mortgage point-of-sale solution, and Plaid, a technology platform and data network used by numerous fintechs, will enable lenders and loan originators to order and receive Plaid’s Asset Reports from the Floify point-of-sale solution by having consumers connect their bank account through Plaid.

In her first statutorily required appearance before Congress as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger was asked to address the bureau’s plans pertaining to its enforcement of fair lending laws, its stance on ongoing litigation against companies, restitution for harmed consumers and its rules regulating payday lenders and overdraft services.

Questions from Democrats were reminiscent of previous challenges to Kraninger’s commitment to the bureau’s mission, and many pertained to changes enacted under former acting director Mick Mulvaney. Republicans decried Democrats for “badgering” Kraninger and defended her and Mulvaney. 

Find out more details about her testimony.

Although Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger has expressed interest in listening to as many consumer and industry stakeholders in the financial marketplace as possible, not all parties have felt compelled to afford her that opportunity.

The National Center for Law and Economic Justice and New Jersey Citizen Action recently declined Kraninger’s requests to meet with their organizations’ leaders, stating that they did not believe such a meeting would result in constructive outcomes.

Find out more about the group’s reasons for declining Kraninger’s invitation.

With the April 1 effective date approaching for its prepaid accounts rule, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) launched an electronic system for prepaid issuers to submit account agreements they currently offer by the rule’s deadline.

Along with the submission system’s launch, the bureau released various compliance materials for prepaid issuers, including a user guide, a quick reference guide, FAQs and a recorded webinar. 

Find out more details about the new submission system and associated requirements.

Wells Fargo’s fourth quarter high-end estimate for its total losses related to legal actions was half a billion dollars more than what it projected in the third quarter.

This revelation comes as the embattled bank works to resolve investigations into its sales practices by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. 

Find out more details about the projected losses.

Lenders One Cooperative, a national alliance of independent mortgage bankers, recently announced that Brian Simon was appointed president of Lenders One. Simon will be responsible for the day-to-day operations and strategic execution of the cooperative.