Tag Archives: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Public interest group Judicial Watch announced Tuesday that it filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to obtain records detailing President Obama's "recess appointment" of CFPB director Richard Cordray. Judicial Watch, a group dedicated to investigating and fighting possible government corruption, says it submitted a FOIA request on January 12 to CFPB seeking access to records of communications between the bureau, the White House, the Executive Office of the President, the Treasury, and Congress concerning Cordray├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós appointment to his post.

In an exclusive interview with MReport Tuesday, Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, divulged his intentions to call for the resignation of Raj Date from his post as deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Following the interview, NAIHP released an official announcement calling for just that. We obtained comments from the consumer bureau countering criticism Date received for a speech Monday in which he faulted mortgage brokers for the housing crisis.

Sparking indignation in the mortgage broker community, Raj Date, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, laid the bulk of the blame for the housing crisis on brokers during a speaking engagement Monday. His statements have led at least one industry trade group to call for his resignation. Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, called Date's comments "outrageous." He said the group will call for the official's resignation this week.

The Dodd-Frank Act fell under scrutiny at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday, with lawmakers from the right charging that the reform law will impose arbitrary rules that limit consumer choice and prevent an economic recovery. Much of the light fell on interagency efforts to finalize the controversial Volcker Rule, a rulemaking requirement under Dodd-Frank that bans short-term proprietary trading by systemically important financial institutions like Chase. Witnesses included Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray.

In what the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau called an important step in the development of our nonbank supervision program, the CFPB officially proposed a rule last week to establish procedures for the bureau's supervision of nonbank financial entities. The Dodd-Frank Act grants the CFPB authority to supervise a nonbank that "it has reasonable cause to determine is posing a risk to consumers based on complaints or other information it receives."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled new rulemaking proposals Thursday that would require background checks for mortgage originators and complement a previous rule that prohibits loan officers from steering borrowers to higher-priced products. Together with these rules, others would provide consumers with discounts for paying mortgage origination points, mandate comparison plans for those interested in tracking different products, and ban brokerage firms from charging fees that vary by the loan size.

House Republicans recently called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to release financial plans and performance targets for the next year. In a letter obtained by MReport, Reps. Michael Fitzpatrick, Randy Neugebauer, and James Renacci slammed the agency by calling it unresponsive to their requests for budget details. The House members frequently made mention of the national debt, tying perceptions of government excess and waste to their demands for congressional oversight of the bureau. The Fed-funded bureau remains at the center of a political storm.

Twenty-four trade groups and associations signed off on a comment letter Friday that calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give creditors more legal leeway when it comes to Qualified Mortgages. The two-page letter ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô headed up by the American Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders, and National Association of Realtors, among others ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô framed forthcoming rules around credit availability and sound home loans. Influential trade groups continue to criticize the rule.

Parties to the landmark mortgage servicing settlement in February appointed one man to oversee $25 billion in compliance. In an interview with DS News, our sister publication, Joseph A. Smith, onetime banking commissioner for North Carolina and ex-nominee for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, lays out the role he envisions playing as he monitors funds for homeowners, states, and the federal government. The settlement monitor speaks with an understated tone about his stewardship of the historic settlement, which 49 state attorneys general and federal officials completed in February.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went live with an inquiry Tuesday that it said will help it determine whether to move on new rules for dispute arbitration clauses. As with many comment periods for new rules, the inquiry is open to the general public and financial services companies. The CFPB said that it wanted to look for answers to questions about the prevalence of arbitration clauses in contracts for financial products, the kinds of claims consumers bring against financial services companies, and how arbitration clauses impact consumers.