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Strengthen your CMS’ policies and procedures
Posted Date: Monday, June 26, 2017
How can you strengthen your policies and procedures? At October Research, LLC’s National Settlement Services Summit, Brian Webster, senior vice president/strategic planning partner at Wells Fargo Home Lending; Brian Hughes, chief operating officer at Title Source; and Richard Horn, founding attorney of Richard Horn Legal PLLC, discussed how policies and procedures should govern service provider oversight and how you can make your policies an effective component of your overall compliance management system.
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CD implementation in UCD gets transition period
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have announced that they are providing a six-month extension of the deadline of the September deadline to submit borrowers’ Closing Disclosures under Uniform Closing Dataset rules. Read on for more details.
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Enterprises issue updated UCD FAQ
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
Shortly after announcing a six-month transition period for Closing Disclosure (CD) implementation in the Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD), the Enterprises released an updated FAQ providing clarifications on construction loans and whether the Enterprises require the UCD and CD for all loans they acquire, among other requirements. Read on to learn more.
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Court strikes down CFPB’s ‘continuing violations’ theory
Posted Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has held that RESPA’s statute-of-limitations period runs from the date of the occurrence of the claimed violation, the date of the loan closing. This runs contrary to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s stance in PHH Corp. Read on to find out which case the court found to be precedential.
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SCOTUS: Disgorgement must follow 5-year SOL
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court held in a unanimous decision that any claim for disgorgement by the Securities and Exchange Commission must be commenced within five years of the date the claim accrued. The case, Kokesh v. SEC, resolves a circuit split.
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DOJ reverses stance on class action waiver ban
Posted Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
Reversing course, the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief supporting the use of class action waivers in employment agreements. Find out what this could mean for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rulemaking activities regarding arbitration clauses in consumer financial services agreements.
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Will Lucia open the door to CFPB reform?
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
When it comes to PHH Corp. v. CFPB, the industry as a whole has expressed greater concerns that Director Richard Cordray’s first order on an administrative appeal – in which he retroactively applied a new interpretation of RESPA Section 8 – is a violation of due process.
However, the use of improperly appointed administrative law judges, which was argued in another case before the full D.C. Circuit, is another topic that may fuel bureau reform.
How could that case impact the CFPB? Read on for more details.
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Court criticizes CFPB’s handling of Sprint redress
Posted Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
Judge William H. Pauley, III from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had some strong words for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s handling of the settlement funds in CFPB v. Sprint Corp. The issue arose after the attorneys general of Connecticut, Vermont, Indiana and Kansas moved to intervene and modify the terms of the stipulated final judgement and order entered June 30, 2015.
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Lower court mandated to review FHA damages
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Supreme Court held that the city of Miami can pursue its lawsuit that it suffered damages when Bank of America and Wells Fargo’s alleged discriminatory lending practices led to more foreclosures in majority-minority neighborhoods during the financial crisis. The lower courts have been mandated to determine whether there was proximate cause under the Fair Housing Act between the lending practices and the claims for lost property-tax revenue and increased municipal expenses.
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Are settlement advances extensions of credit?
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has maintained its argument that its structure is constitutional. The bureau is facing attacks against its constitutionality in its lawsuit against RD Legal Funding LLC, which is alleged to have scammed 9/11 first-responders and NFL retirees.
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NAR expresses concerns with NFIP mark-ups
Posted Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
The National Association of Realtors has issued a statement in response to the House Financial Services Committee’s final mark-up of seven flood insurance bills aimed at reforming and reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program. Find out what other bills were passed through the committee and which bill caused the association some concerns.
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MBA reports slight increase in mortgage applications
Posted Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
Mortgage applications increased 0.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. Read on to find out more, including the share of adjustable-rate mortgages.
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Prepaid account proposal includes TILA changes
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a request for public comment on possible amendments to its final prepaid accounts rule. The proposal would amendments aspects of the rule affected by Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. Read on to learn more.
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Fannie, NAR discuss student loan debt
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
The National Association of Realtors Governmental Affairs team recently sat down to talk with Jonathan Lawless, vice president of customer solutions at Fannie Mae, and Charley Dawson, managing director of regulatory policy at NAR, to discuss the changes Fannie Mae has made to its underwriting to help borrowers with student loan debt.
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Hearing held for OIRA nominee
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing June 7 on the nomination of Neomi Rao to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget, what has been coined as “the most important position which you may not have heard of before.” Find out more about this position and about Rao.
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Flood insurance bills pass financial services committee
Posted Date: Monday, June 19, 2017
The House Financial Services Committee passed its first round of flood insurance bills to reform and authorize the National Flood Insurance Program, which is set to expire on Sept. 30, 2017. The bills approved included the National Flood Insurance Program Policyholder Protection Act of 2017 and the 21st Century Flood Reform Act of 2017.
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CFPB reforms recommended to Congress
Posted Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
Within its first in a series of reports to President Donald Trump examining the United States’ financial regulatory system, the U.S. Treasury detailed several ways in which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can be reformed. Read on to learn more.
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SCOTUS opinion bodes well for RESPA, attorney says
Posted Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
For RESPA attorneys who believe in taking a strictly statutory language approach to interpreting the law – such that, “Nothing means nothing” – the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 12 opinion in Henson v. Santander Consumer USA INC. may provide a glimmer of hope. Read on to learn more.
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Court upholds CID against public records website
Posted Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s petition to enforce the civil investigative demand it sent to The Source for Public Data LP, a company that purchases or obtains public records from governmental entities and provides its users with access to these records through its website for a fee. Find out how this court distinguished this case from CFPB v. ACICS.
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NAR’s Yun comments on interest rate hike
Posted Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
In its fourth interest rate hike since the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve lifted its federal fund rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent in view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation. Read on to learn more.
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Patenaude nomination advances to full Senate
Posted Date: Thursday, June 15, 2017
The Senate Banking Committee has advanced the nomination of Pam Patenaude to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Patenaude still needs to be confirmed by the full Senate. Read on to learn more.
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CFPB withdraws CID request
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has withdrawn its civil investigative demand (CID) against a financial services company. The bureau sought to investigate the company’s practice of paying consumers for the rights to future income from annuities and legal settlements.
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Takeaways from October Research’s annual summit
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
October Research LLC’s 2017 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) was held last week in San Antonio. There, attendees heard from industry experts on the latest compliance issues affecting the industry. Among these speakers were Ken Markison, vice president and regulatory counsel at the Mortgage Bankers Association; Loretta Salzano, founding partner of Franzén and Salzano; Trip Riley, partner at Saul Ewing LLP; Marx Sterbcow, managing attorney at Sterbcow Law Group; Richard Horn, founding attorney of Richard Horn Legal PPLC; Brian Webster, senior vice president/strategic planning partner at Wells Fargo Home Lending; Brian Hughes, chief operating officer at Title Source.
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Incorrect policies, procedures lead to RESPA violations
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has entered into a consent order with Fay Servicing, LCC, after concluding that the mortgage servicer’s handling of loss mitigation applications led to violations of RESPA and the Consumer Financial Protection Act. Read on to find out what your policies and procedures should say regarding retention applications and non-retention applications.
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TRID, loan package documentation lead defects
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
ACES Risk Management has released the ARMCO Mortgage QC Industry Trends Report for the fourth quarter of 2016 and calendar year 2016, finding that more than 68 percent of defects reported in 2016 involved TRID-related and/or loan package documentation issues. Read on to learn more.
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Carson turns focus on millennial homebuyers
Posted Date: Monday, June 12, 2017
While appearing at the National Housing Symposium in Washington, D.C., HUD Secretary Ben Carson stressed the need for more to be done to assist millennials in entering the housing market. Find out which programs he said could help millennials and other first-time homebuyers.
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NS3: Make a Child Smile brings ‘enduring delights’ to San Antonio children
Posted Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
For the sixth year, attendees at October Research, LLC’s National Settlement Services Summit took time out of their plans to make a difference in area children’s lives. Read on for details of the Make a Child Smile presentation, and how San Antonio foster children will receive “one of the most enduring delights of childhood.”
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NS3 Live: Lenders, regulators tackle top issues
Posted Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
Distinguished panelists spoke to key issues on the minds of those in the industry at the 2017 National Settlement Services Summit in San Antonio. Richard Horn, founding attorney, Richard Horn, Legal, PLLC, moderated the annual open forum session, which followed a pair of sessions addressing eClosings and an economic update from Fannie Mae Deputy Chief Economist Mark Palim. Read on for a brief recap of what the panel said.
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NS3: Industry standouts rewarded with OR awards
Posted Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
For the sixth year, October Research, LLC, presented its annual awards for leadership, innovation and philanthropy, with some of the brightest stars in the title industry recognized for their efforts. The awards were presented by CEO and Publisher Erica Meyer at the 13th annual National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in San Antonio. Read on to find out who took home the hardware this year.
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Do plaintiffs’ RESPA, ECOA claims overcome dismissal?
Posted Date: Thursday, June 8, 2017
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire recently was tasked with determining whether plaintiffs Fairon and Donna Brown’s claims under RESPA and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act against Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Federal National Mortgage Association were sufficiently different to overcome issue preclusion and time bars.
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Powerhouse lineup takes to NS3 stage this week
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
With the most distinguished group of speakers set to take the stage over three days, the 13th annual National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) makes its first appearance in the great state of Texas this week. Read on for details about the program that is At The Center of the real estate transaction today.
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CFPB details complaints from older consumers
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a complaint snapshot highlighting the specific complaints of older consumers. Many of the issues older consumers described were similar to those raised by their younger counterparts. There were, however, some issues that essentially occur exclusively in the older consumer population.
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RESPA, detrimental reliance weighed in foreclosure case
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, recently considered whether an agreement for a short sale of property satisfied the statute of frauds under promissory estoppel. The plaintiff alleged violations of the Texas Property Code (similar to RESPA) and detrimental reliance after the defendants cancelled the agreement.
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Lenders optimistic about policy changes
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
According to a survey from Lenders One, a large majority of lenders surveyed (73 percent) believe the Trump administration’s policies will have a positive impact on the lending environment, according to the 2017 Lenders One Mortgage Barometer, a survey of 200 mortgage lending professionals. Read on to learn more.
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HUD hosts homeownership forum
Posted Date: Monday, June 5, 2017
June was proclaimed as National Homeownership Month by the Trump administration. This year’s theme is “Find Your Place in a New Era of Homeownership.” HUD Secretary Ben Carson hosted a forum to assess the state of homeownership in the U.S. following the housing crisis, specifically the challenges millennials face as they enter the market in greater numbers.
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OIG finds improper terminations of FHA loan insurance
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued an audit report, determining that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) did not ensure that lenders properly processed voluntary terminations of insurance coverage on FHA loans. Find out what else the inspector general found.
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CFPB to assess ATR/QM rule
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is conducting an assessment of the Ability to Repay rule and Qualified Mortgage rule (ATR/QM) under the Truth in Lending Act, according to a recent notice of assessment.
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Lenders continue to loosen credit requirements
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
The STRATMOR Group has determined within its latest Insights report that lenders are continuing to loosen credit requirements to expand the pool of potential home-buying borrowers. Read on to find out what has been some of the changes.
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Committee releases draft flood insurance legislation
Posted Date: Thursday, June 1, 2017
The House Financial Services Committee has released portions of its draft legislation to reauthorize and reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is set to expire Sept. 30. The draft covers NFIP affordability, flood mapping, mitigation incentives, taxpayer protections, claims process and private flood insurance. Read on to learn more.
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