News By Edition

Ellie Mae President and CEO Jonathan Corr told Dodd Frank Update that the key to the company’s success is continually identifying ways to apply the latest advancements in technology to help lenders stay on top of shifting regulatory standards and close mortgages with greater efficiency, in terms of time and money, during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference.

Such innovations are laying the groundwork for the future of eClosings, he said.

Find out how his company is looking to continue its pattern of staying one step ahead of the curve from a mortgage technology angle.

Consumer experience is becoming a greater priority than perhaps ever before in the mortgage industry and there is no shortage of opinions on the best approaches to improving how lenders interact with the people they serve.

Total Expert CEO Joe Welu founded the company in 2012 with the idea that consumer relationship management systems had room for improvement in that regard, which led him to develop a marketing operating system, designed to deliver a modernized, personalized experience for consumers.

Find out what Welu believes is essential to delivering the best customer experience possible.

Voters across the country ensured there would be a check and balance in place in the federal government, as Republicans looked to maintain their advantage in the Senate but Democrats swept to a resounding victory in House races to reclaim the majority. Read on for more details.

A federal court has ordered that a stay of the compliance date for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) payday lending rule pending further notice.

The ruling comes following the bureau’s recent announcement that it will proceed with plans to revisit its rule regulating short-term, small-dollar loans.

Find out more details about the court’s decision and the industry’s reaction.

The lack of regulatory scrutiny placed on fintech companies compared with banks and credit unions has been a major cause of concern and pushback as their presence continues to grow in the financial marketplace.

Although a recent development with one fintech may invite increased regulatory scrutiny, industry insiders would point out that it still gets off fairly easy from a regulatory perspective.

Read on for details of Square Inc.’s recent launch into installment credit and how the move highlights questions about fintech’s regulatory responsibility in our interview with Carrie Hunt, executive vice president of government affairs and general counsel for the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions.

The financial industry is optimistic about the prospect of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) run by Kathy Kraninger, given the similarities between her views on how to fulfill the bureau’s statutory mandate to those of acting director Mick Mulvaney.

Rhonda Thomas-Whitley, assistant vice president and regulatory counsel for the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), and Credit Union National Association Chief Advocacy Officer told Dodd Frank Update their associations are hopeful Kraninger will continue some of the policy positions the bureau has operated under during Mulvaney’s tenure as acting director while also paving her own leadership path.

Find out more about what the industry should expect from Kraninger.

Non-public entities will have an extra year to implement new accounting standards crafted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Multiple trade groups advocated for a delay in the implementation date but recently proposed updates to eliminate redundancy have raised other concerns that have nothing to do with the timing of compliance, as the Independent Community Bankers of America’s James Kendrick told Dodd Frank Update.

Find out what other issues related to the new standards and proposed changes to it have some in the industry on edge.

Policymakers and mortgage industry participants may benefit from the first public release of loan-level data collected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.  The information includes insights about borrower experiences when getting a residential mortgage compiled quarterly in the agencies’ National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO).

The NSMO is a component of the National Mortgage Database, which was launched in 2012 as the first comprehensive repository of detailed mortgage loan information based on borrower experiences obtaining a residential mortgage.

Find out more details about the publication of the survey data.

Since electing to use reserve funds on hand at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to finance the agency’s expenses in the second quarter of 2018, acting director Mick Mulvaney begrudgingly has utilized his authority to request federal funds without having to go through Congress.

He reiterated in his previously contended belief that the bureau should be placed under congressional appropriations in his first-quarter funding request for 2019.

Find out more about how much the bureau asked for and how it compares to requests submitted by former Director Richard Cordray.

Charged with running deceitful advertisements about the money-saving potential of its services, online student loan refinancer Social Finance, Inc. agreed to stop making such misrepresentations in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Given that the FTC does not have the authority to force companies to pay a civil money penalty, one commissioner suggested that the agency could achieve “better results” by partnering with regulatory bodies who have such authority – something it has done on multiple occasions. 

Find out more details about the charges and what the agency is encouraging other lenders to do to avoid similar actions.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have collaborated to launch a centralized clearinghouse of online resources to assist lenders, servicers, housing counselors and other real estate professionals in serving limited English proficient (LEP) borrowers called Mortgage Translations.

The entities noted that the share of LEP borrowers in the mortgage market continues to grow, and is not expected to stop in the coming decades.

Read on to learn more about what resources are being offered through the clearinghouse.

Open banking has become a prominent strategic initiative among the majority of large banks when it comes to their commercial clients. Research conducted by Accenture found that banks believe doing so is essential to implementing effective digital transformation programs intended to help them achieve double-digit revenue growth.

Learn more details about the findings included in the report.

TD Bank has leveraged Roostify’s DecisionBuilder lead tool to launch a customer-oriented digital mortgage offering, combining lending technology with a human-centric approach, according to a press release.

Flagstar Bank recently announced that it has closed on a deal to acquire 52 Wells Fargo bank branches in four Midwestern states. The branches include approximately $2 billion in deposits, along with other related assets.

ACES Risk Management (ARMCO), which provides enterprise financial risk management solutions, recently announced new product enhancements designed to increase QC process efficiency and security for lenders and servicers using its auditing platform, ACES Audit Technology. The top features of the upgrade include the addition of single sign-on capability, and integration with DataVerify, according to a company press release.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on pace to have its second full-time director after Kathy Kraninger’s nomination cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday.

The move sets up a final vote no earlier than Dec. 4, which is all but assured of sending the associate director at the Office of Management and Budget to the director’s chair.

What will the second full-time director mean for the industry? Read on for more.

Mick Mulvaney’s actions as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are the subject of heavy scrutiny in a minority staff report published by the Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

Although the 36-page report focuses on Mulvaney’s alleged misdeeds during his time at the bureau, its underlying goal is to dissuade the Senate from confirming Kathy Kraninger as the bureau’s new permanent director.

See what information the report points to in making such claims.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is considering policy changes to streamline and strengthen the resolution planning process for large banks, as well as changes to its Orderly Liquidation Authority.

The agency also is considering changes to thresholds associated with its insured depository institutions (IDIs) rule and will not require banks to file IDI plans until its rule revisions are finalized.

Learn what Chairman Jelena McWilliams believes should be guiding principles behind any potential rule changes.

Recognizing the number of major changes in markets, technology and industry practice since the public first submitted comments on the agencies’ proposal, the Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have reopened the public comment period for a 2011 rule they jointly proposed regarding fund availability under Regulation CC.

The agencies are hoping to implement a method for calculating the dollar amount adjustments required every five years under the Expedited Funds Availability Act.

Find out more details about what the agencies hope to accomplish.

A substantial drop in 30-year fixed mortgage rates for conventional loans fueled an equally noteworthy uptick in mortgage applications as Thanksgiving approached, but flattened out in the week that followed. Interest rates for other loan types remained stable or increased slightly during the same timeframe.

Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed a flattening of rates among all mortgage types it holds in the week following the holiday.

Find out more insights revealed by the industry research.

Asserting the new Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) accounting standard could have unforeseen adverse impacts on the mortgage industry, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Robert Broeksmit urged Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to delay its implementation and order a quantitative study on its overall impact.

The negative impacts the industry fears stem, in part, from the standard’s reliance on potentially inaccurate long-term economic projections. 

Find out more about the association’s stance on the matter.

Charged with a misrepresenting certain costs and limitations associated with its add-on insurance product, a financial services provider reached a settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The settlement involves a relatively complex restitution plan requiring the company to acquire or write off of certain customer accounts affected by the company’s actions.

Find out more details about what the company is being ordered to do.

For the third consecutive year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has elected to increase maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages to be acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2019 throughout most of the U.S. in accordance with the Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

Rising home values caused loan limit increases. All but 47 counties or county equivalents will see increasing loan limits throughout the country.

Find out how large the increase will be and what it means going forward.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Randal Quarles has been named chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) a little more than a year after being confirmed as the Fed’s vice chairman of supervision.

The board appointed him to serve a three-year term beginning in December when he takes over for departing Chairman Mark Carney, a governor for the Bank of England.

Read on to find out more details.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) recent proposal that would eliminate certain disclosure requirements for insured state nonmember banks and state-licensed foreign bank branches has drawn support from the financial industry.

The American Bankers Association noted its support for the proposal in a comment letter and agreed with the FDIC’s stated reasons behind its proposal.

Read on to find out what the proposal would mean for the industry if adopted.

The wait-and-see period regarding Kathy Kraninger’s nomination to become the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could end virtually any time now that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has filed for cloture on the matter.

There is little reason to doubt Kraninger would be confirmed by a party-line vote before the end of the year, making the vote to end debate over her nomination perhaps the last true potential stumbling block between Kraninger and the director’s chair.

Read on to learn more about what needs to happen for her to be confirmed.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) report for the third quarter of 2018 showed aggregate profits for insured commercial banks and savings institutions at $62 billion for the quarter, a $14 billion (29.3 percent) jump from the same period last year.

The agency attributed the uptick to higher net operating revenue combined with a lower effective tax rate. It is once again the most profitable quarter on record for the banking industry, topping each of the first two quarters of 2018.

Find out more details about the report.

Federal banking regulators recently proposed to implement a 9 percent leverage ratio for community banks, higher than what many believe necessary to offer sufficient regulatory relief to the industry.

Industry trade associations were quick to assert that federal regulators did not go far enough to relieve capitalization burdens for community banks as intended by recent financial reform law.

Find out more details about the proposed rule and the industry’s reaction.

A proposal to exempt residential real estate transactions of $400,000 or less from appraisal requirements could help alleviate industry concerns about the time and cost associated with completing such transactions.

Federal banking regulators issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to raise the residential appraisal threshold, stating that they believe doing so could provide meaningful relief from appraisal burdens without posing safety and soundness threats. 

Find out what the proposal could mean for banks if implemented.

It took two weeks to confirm what appeared to be called on Election Night, as Utah 2nd District Republican incumbent Mia Love lost to former Salt Lake City Mayor Ben McAdams by 694 votes.

Love was one of five Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee to lose election races this cycle. With only two races appearing to be contested two weeks after elections, Democrats look to have 233 seats in the next House.

Read on for more details of results of close House races called in the past week.

With two years to spare before the statutory deadline, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported that its Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) is above the 1.35 percent reserve ratio mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.

The fact that it hit that mark ahead of the Sept. 30, 2020, statutory deadline means an end to quarterly surcharges for large banks and puts the mark just shy of statutory requirements for returning millions of dollars to community banks.

Find out more details about what the current status of the reserve ratio means for banks.

Friction between banking and credit union advocates is intensifying with calls for reforms to Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements that would lessen the act’s impact on banks and subject credit unions to CRA provisions as well.

Banking advocates argue that not subjecting banks and credit unions to the same anti-discrimination standards creates market inequity and confusion. Credit union trade groups argue that their members do not engage in the types of activities such requirements were intended to stamp out.

Find out more about arguments from both sides.

Strength and stability are words the mortgage industry typically likes to hear, and those are precisely the words being used to describe the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) 2018 Annual Report to Congress on the economic condition of the agency’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund).

Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Robert Broeksmit said the MMIF capital ratio reflects significant improvements in regards to delinquencies, early payment defaults, claims payments and loss rates, among other serious indicators.

Find out more details about the agency’s annual report.

Although the strength of the housing market has been good to many in the industry, Wells Fargo recently announced that it will eliminate approximately 900 positions from its home lending staff, and 1,000 total.

A bank spokesperson said the staff reduction is driven by declines in business related to mortgage applications, delinquencies and defaults, largely because of the strength of the housing market.

Find out more about the company’s staffing plans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a state-by-state snapshot report detailing consumer compliant trends across the country between Jan. 1, 2015 and June 30, 2018.

The report shines a light on what issues elicit the most complaints from individual states and how complaint trends have changed between states. It also details information on the timeliness of the bureau’s complaint responses.

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

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest National Delinquency Survey indicated a rise in delinquencies for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties in the third quarter of 2018.

“Despite the small uptick this quarter, the healthy economy is overall supporting low mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure inventories," MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh said.

Read on for more details from the association’s latest report.

The Senate voted to confirm Michelle “Miki” Bowman for the Federal Reserve Board seat earmarked for someone with community banking experience. She is the first person confirmed for the seat since its creation during the Obama administration.

Her nomination has been championed by community banking trade groups, such as the Independent Community Bankers of America and the American Bankers Association, since it was announced in April.

Find out more details about her confirmation.

Following in the footsteps of its regulatory counterparts, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is moving forward with its plans to form the agency’s own Office of Innovation. 

FDIC Chairwoman Jelena McWilliams offered details on what the office will look like during an event at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Find out what details she described about the new office’s priorities and goals.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced it is seeking information about small-dollar lending among entities it supervises.

Specifically, commenters are being asked about the supply and demand of small-dollar lending products provided by banks, information about challenges banks face in offering small-dollar credit products and what role technology and other means can play in helping banks meet consumer demand in that area.

Read on to find out more about what the agency is hoping to learn.

The mortgage industry saw a 4 percent drop in applications entering the month of November as rates ticked up to a new eight-year high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Nov. 2.

Average interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit the highest mark since April 2010.

Read on to learn more information about changes in applications and interest rates.

One of two contested Senate races saw a concession roughly a week following Election Night. That's not including a run-off for the Mississippi senate seat set for the end of the month.

On the House side, Democrats flipped several seats on Election Night and there are other races that have yet to be decided with some headed for recount. 

Find out more updates from the numerous races still being contested throughout the country.

Streamlined call reports will become a reality for many more banks with the implementation of a new rule proposed by the federal banking agencies, as directed by S. 2155.

The proposal immediately met with criticism from the Independent Community Bankers of America, which argued that the agencies failed to fulfill the intent of Congress in lessening condition reporting burdens.

Find out more about the proposal and the industry’s initial take on it.

A company’s failure to improve its anti-fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) program in accordance with a 2012 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) led to a $125 million penalty ordered by the Department of Justice.

The company also agreed to pay the same sum to settle similar contempt allegations filed in 2009 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Find out more details about the charges against the company.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently voted 5-0 to propose a rule that would require national consumer reporting agencies to offer free electronic credit monitoring services to active duty military members, implementing a provision of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.

The rule would require consumer reporting agencies to notify active duty military members within 24 hours of any “material” additions or modifications to their credit files.

Read on to learn more details.

Through an expanded internal review of a software error that led to hundreds of denied mortgage modifications and subsequent foreclosures, Wells Fargo determined that the glitch had a wider reaching impact than previously thought.

The company disclosed in its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the error resulted in more wrongly denied mortgage modifications and more wrongful foreclosures than previously indicated.

Find out more about what the company told Dodd Frank Update it planned to do to redress affected borrowers.

Banking agencies and other regulators are being urged to consider formal rulemaking to provide greater certainty pertaining to the use of supervisory guidance in examinations, which some industry advocates believe is too prevalent.

The letters note three reasons the banking trade organizations support the interagency policy statement but also detail their concerns about regulators’ perceived overreliance on guidance materials.

Find out more about why some industry organizations are calling for formal rulemaking to address this matter.

Multifamily lending caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain $35 billion apiece in 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced.

The agency also detailed new requirements for certain loans to be excluded from the cap.

Read on to get more details about how the cap is determined and what loans qualify for exclusion.

The prevailing theme of the annual Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) convention this year was the push to make the widespread adoption of digital mortgages and eClosing a reality in the coming year.

First American Mortgage Solutions rolled out digital solutions across the mortgage lifecycle at the MBA convention, promising clients the ability to adopt a digital mortgage process immediately.

Find out more about how the company’s latest development could contribute to the expanding reach of eClosing capabilities.

A study analyzing market share growth among fintech mortgage lenders indicated that such entities process transactions significantly faster than traditional lenders, and tend to be less prone to default.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that fintechs process mortgage applications about significantly faster than traditional lenders.

Find out more about the study’s findings and what it could say about where the industry is headed.

Parties connected to a debt collection operation were charged with tricking consumers into paying more than they owe and have been sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office.

The FTC does not have the statutory authority to seek redress for harmed consumers but the NYAG does under New York state law and exercised it in this case.

Find out more details about the case.

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) remittance rule turning 5 years old, the time has come for a Dodd-Frank Act-mandated assessment of the rule’s effectiveness in protecting consumers when sending remittance transfers to other countries.

In addition to evaluating the rule’s effectiveness, the report also provided information on its effects on the financial marketplace.

Find out what details the bureau uncovered about the rule’s impact.

Resitrader, an online digital exchange for whole loan trading in the secondary mortgage market owned by Optimal Blue, recently integrated its fully automated trading platform with LendingQB.

The Federal Reserve Board approved a proposal to implement new prudential standards to ease liquidity and capital requirements for banking entities that meet certain criteria for total assets and interconnectivity.

The proposal mainly would impact financial institutions with assets levels between $100 billion and $250 billion, and would not impact the largest, most complex financial entities.

Find out more about the proposal and its potential implications.

In effort to standardize how counterparty risk is calculated, the three federal banking regulators issued a proposed rule to establish a new approach that accounts for the exposure amount of derivative contracts under the regulatory capital rule.

The proposed “standardized approach for counterparty credit risk,” or SA-CCR, would be an alternative to the current exposure methodology for calculating advanced approaches total risk-weighted assets under the capital rule.

Find out more about the potential benefits of the new calculation method. 

Banks will face less red tape when considering job applicants with minor theft or drug offenses on their records thanks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s (FDIC) recent modifications to its Statement of Policy (SOP) for Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance (FDI) Act.

Section 19 prohibits a person convicted of any criminal offense involving dishonesty, breach of trust, money laundering or who has entered into a pretrial diversion or similar program (program entry) in connection with a prosecution for such offense, from participating in the affairs of an FDIC-insured institution.

Read on to get more details about the modifications.