Dovetailing with President Trump’s recent Executive Order requiring a reduction in regulatory burden, on March 21, 2017, a CFPB official remarked at the American Bankers Association Government Relations Summit that the CFPB was planning to start its review of significant mortgage regulations, including the ability to repay/qualified mortgage rule.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFPB to use available evidence and data to assess all of its rules five years after they go into effect to ensure they are meeting the purposes and objectives of Dodd-Frank, and the specific goals of the subject rule. … Continue Reading

As we had indicated, on March 16, the subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Financial Services Committee conducted a hearing entitled “The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s Unconstitutional Design.” Unsurprisingly, Republicans and Democrats on the subcommittee talked past each other in making remarks and questioning the four witnesses: Ted Olson, Saikrishna Prakash, Adam White, and Brianne Gorod.… Continue Reading

In a recent blog post, Alan Kaplinsky and Scott Pearson wrote about the remarks made by CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry at the LendIt USA conference in New York City earlier this month.  In the blog post, we expressed our strong disagreement with Comptroller Curry’s refusal to author an interpretive opinion to address the disruption in the lending markets caused by the Second Circuit’s Madden decision and promised to share our reasons at a later date for why we think that the OCC should go even further and propose a rule to address Madden. … Continue Reading

The CFPB has issued a notice regarding its plans to conduct an assessment of its remittance transfer rule which became effective on October 28, 2013.

The assessment is being conducted under Section 1022(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act which requires the CFPB to conduct an assessment “of each significant rule or order adopted by the Bureau under Federal consumer financial law.” … Continue Reading

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Financial Services has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow entitled “The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s Unconstitutional Design.”  The memo from the Committee’s Majority Staff to Committee Members states that “the [h]earing will examine whether the structure of the Bureau violates the Constitution as well as structural changes to the Bureau to resolve any constitutional infirmities.”… Continue Reading

The DOJ submitted its amicus brief in the PHH case on Friday, March 17.  We have blogged extensively about this case since its inception. Unsurprisingly, the Trump DOJ supports striking from Dodd-Frank the removal-only-for-cause protection currently applicable to the director of the CFPB.  In its “view, the panel correctly applied severability principles and therefore properly struck down only the for-cause removal restrictions.” … Continue Reading

President Trump has signed a new executive order entitled “Presidential Executive Order on a Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.”

Unlike the regulatory freeze memo issued on Inauguration Day by Reince Priebus, the President’s Chief of Staff, the so-called “two for one” executive order on reducing regulation and controlling costs, and the executive order to enforce compliance with the regulatory reform agenda, the new order, on its face, does appear to apply to independent regulatory agencies including the CFPB.… Continue Reading

A Democratic congressman has raised concerns about potentially discriminatory lending practices used by fintech companies that extend credit to small businesses, calling on the CFPB “to vigorously investigate whether [such fintech companies] are complying with all anti-discrimination laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.”

In a letter to Director Cordray dated March 15, 2017, Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II, stated that fintech companies “geared toward lending to small businesses by using certain biased algorithms for creditworthiness have the potential of charging disproportionately higher rates to minority-owned businesses.” … Continue Reading

On Friday, PHH filed its opening en banc brief with the D.C. Circuit in the rehearing of its appeal of Director Cordray’s June 2015 decision that affirmed an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) recommended decision concluding PHH had violated RESPA and increased the ALJ’s disgorgement award from over $6.4 million to over $109 million. … Continue Reading

The CFPB has proposed to delay the effective date of the final rule governing Prepaid Accounts from October 1, 2017 to April 1, 2018. The CFPB’s action is a direct response to ongoing dialogue between companies in the prepaid industry and the CFPB staff. The CFPB proposal to delay the effective date has a twenty-one (21) day comment period from publication of the proposal in the Federal Register.… Continue Reading