News By Edition

The multitude of demands on mortgage lenders does not leave much time to ponder the challenges faced by their counterparts involved in other aspects of the real estate transaction, or vice versa.

To get a different perspective on topics that cut across multiple segments of the industry, Dodd Frank Update caught up with Fidelity National Financial Senior Vice President, National Agency Division, Chuck Cain at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference.

Sixty. That is the approximate number of credit unions that experienced “some level of outage” due to a single ransomware attack on a third-party provider earlier this month, according to the National Credit Union Administration. The incident is a reminder of the importance of heeding warnings about cyber risks and taking appropriate safeguarding measures.

Partnerships between traditional financial institutions and fintechs to offer customers innovative products and solutions are more commonplace than ever, but the industry is still learning the potential regulatory pitfalls that can arise in these types of third-party relationships.

One such partnership between First Northwest Bancorp and a fintech resulted in an enforcement action with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., requiring the Port Angeles, Wash.- based bank to undertake a comprehensive overhaul of its compliance management program.

The mortgage marketplace is a vast and ever-changing sector of the nation’s economy, which encompasses banks and credit unions of all sizes, as well as government-sponsored enterprises and a growing number of fintech companies.

Take a look at a handful of topics and news items recently touched upon by various trade organizations active within the mortgage space.

Fannie Mae recently unveiled a series of updates to its December Selling Guide with the intent to streamline lending processes, modernize requirements governing allowable methods for making credit determinations and bolster transparency. 

In November, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released details about multiple enforcement actions citing “unsafe and unsound” practices against national banks and federal savings associations, as well as individuals currently and formerly affiliated with these types of entities.

The types of practices cited in the OCC’s latest round of enforcement actions announced by the OCC are described in Title I of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its audit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s financial statements for 2022 and 2023.

According to the GAO, the agency spent $2.75 billion this year to enhance citizens’ financial education and ensure banks, lenders, and other financial companies under its supervision comply with consumer protection laws.

With its recent approval of a trial construction loan disclosure template, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took the first step for the bureau’s Trial Disclosure Program toward establishing distinct requirements for construction loans, as opposed to other real estate loan types.

Through ongoing testing efforts, the bureau hopes the program will help to identify and define parameters to guide compliance personnel when interpreting and applying the CFPB’s TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) rule, also known as “Know Before You Owe” requirements, to construction loan originations.

The Federal Reserve recently announced its approval of NB Bancorp, Inc.’s application to become a bank holding company by absorbing NB Financial, Inc., and thereby also acquiring Needham Bank of Needham, Mass.

In a conversion plan released in June, NB Bancorp explained the business purpose for converting into a bank holding company.