Recently the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rescinded various FHA mortgage loan requirements in a series of five Mortgagee Letters.

Supplemental Consumer Information Form

As previously reported, HUD announced in Mortgage Letter 2023-13 that lenders must use the Supplemental Consumer Information Form (SCIF) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection with FHA insured mortgage loans with application dates on or after August 28, 2023.… Continue Reading

In Trump v. American Federation of Government Employees, a case on its emergency docket  that could have implications for the CFPB, the Supreme Court issued a brief opinion allowing the Trump Administration to fire tens of thousands of workers at 19 different federal government agencies while appeals over the firings continue.… Continue Reading

The podcast show we are releasing this week focuses generally on the so-called “Unitary Executive Theory” and specifically on the legality of President Trump firing without cause the Democratic Commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission and the members of other independent agencies, despite language in the governing statutes that prohibit the President from firing a member without cause and a 1935 Supreme Court opinion in Humphrey’s Executor holding that the firing of an FTC Commissioner by the President is unlawful if done without cause.… Continue Reading

The huge budget bill signed by President Trump on July 4 does not include a proposal from Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Republicans to delay implementation of the Section 1071 rule for ten years, but the Trump Administration still is expected to revise the rule.

The Section 1071 rule is a Dodd-Frank provision that requires financial institutions to report information contained in loan applications submitted by small businesses, including women-owned, minority-owned and LGBTQI+-owned small businesses.… Continue Reading

On June 20, 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced they are seeking public input on questions related to payments fraud. This Request for Information (RFI) asked interested stakeholders to comment on ways that the OCC, the FRB, and the FDIC could take actions collectively or independently to help consumers, businesses, and financial institutions mitigate check, automated clearing house (ACH), wire, and instant payments fraud.… Continue Reading

On behalf of the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), Ballard Spahr has submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in Coinbase, Inc., et al. v. Kramer, et al., No. 24-1230.  The amicus brief was filed in support of a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Coinbase which asks the Court to clarify the scope of Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preemption when California plaintiffs seek public injunctive relief under the “McGill rule” but only a fraction of the general public (typically customers of the defendant) would benefit from the issuance of any such relief.… Continue Reading

The budget bill signed by President Trump on July 4 will make massive cuts to the CFPB’s budget.

The huge bill changes the amount that the CFPB may receive from the Federal Reserve from a maximum of 12% of the Fed’s inflation-adjusted total operating expenses in 2009 to a maximum of 6.5%.… Continue Reading

The Department of Housing and Development is seeking information about the impact that the frequent use of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products may have on borrowers’ ability to meet housing-related expenses, including rent or mortgage payments. Comments are due on or before August 25, 2025.

“The rise of BNPL lending raises important questions about how it may impact housing affordability and stability,” the department said, in issuing a Request for Information.… Continue Reading

The genesis of the podcast show we are releasing today was an article written by Nick Bourke titled “America Can Fix Its Scam Problem. But We Keep Gifting Billions to Transnational Criminals Because It Feels Too Hard“ published on April 12, 2025 in Open Banker. We learned from that article about the great work being done by Aspen Institute’s National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention.… Continue Reading

The independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Federal Reserve System (FRS) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is investigating the bureau’s workforce reductions and its canceled contracts, according to a letter to Senator Andy Kim, D-NJ, from Acting FRS/CFPB IG Fred Gibson.

Gibson said he already was investigating the workforce reductions at the bureau in response to a letter from Senator Gary Peters, D-Mich.… Continue Reading