On this week’s podcast, Ballard Spahr attorneys Bo Ranney, Chris Willis, and Reid Herlihy discuss the significant takeaways from the CFPB’s new report—the first edition of Supervisory Highlights issued under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. Mr. Ranney, former Examiner-in-Charge at the CFPB, and Mr. Willis, who chairs Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Litigation Group, discuss the CFPB’s findings regarding debt collection, payday loans, automobile servicing, and small business lending.… Continue Reading

In what seems to be a response to the Government Accountability Office’s (“GAO”) determination that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s indirect auto finance bulletin (the “Bulletin”) was a rule subject to the Congressional Review Act (“CRA”) and a rebuke to the Bureau’s prior approach of “rulemaking by enforcement,” the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Bureau (collectively, the “agencies”) this week issued an Interagency Statement Clarifying the Role of Supervisory Guidance (the “Interagency Statement”).… Continue Reading

The CFPB recently released an interpretive and procedural rule to implement and clarify the partial exemption from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) adopted in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (also known as S.2155).

As we reported previously, the Act amended HMDA to create an exemption applicable to the new data categories added by Dodd-Frank and the HMDA rule adopted by the CFPB for insured depository institutions and insured credit unions that originate mortgage loans below certain thresholds. … Continue Reading

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a statement regarding the partial exemption from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting requirements for certain lower mortgage volume depository institution lenders that was adopted in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Act).

As we reported previously, the Act exempts depository institutions and credit unions from the new reporting categories added by Dodd-Frank and the HMDA rule adopted by the CFPB with regard to (1) closed-end loans, if the institution or credit union originated fewer than 500 such loans in each of the preceding two calendar years, and (2) home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), if the institution or credit union originated fewer than 500 HELOCs in each of the preceding two calendar years.… Continue Reading

The CFPB recently issued revised TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule guides to reflect the adoption of an amendment to the rule to fix the so-called “black hole” issue.  As we reported previously, the amendment will permit the use of an initial or revised Closing Disclosure to reset tolerances without regard to the timing of when before consummation the creditor learns of a change that causes one or more fees to increase. … Continue Reading

As we reported previously, the CFPB recently adopted a long-awaited amendment to the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule that fixes the so-called black hole issue.

The amendment was published in the May 2, 2018 Federal Register and will become effective on June 1, 2018.  The CFPB notes in the supplementary information to the amendment that “[o]nce the final rule becomes effective, the ability to reset tolerances prior to consummation for a given transaction will not be limited by when the application was received.” … Continue Reading

The CFPB, which is now referring to itself as the “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection,” published the long-awaited final rule to address the so-called “black hole” issue under the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule.  The CFPB also issued an Executive Summary of the final rule.  The final rule will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.… Continue Reading

A recent bill introduced in the US House of Representatives would require the CFPB to issue guidance on federal consumer financial laws, and also provide a framework for civil money penalties.  H.R. 5534 would create the Give Useful Information to Define Effective Compliance Act or GUIDE Compliance Act.  The bill was introduced by Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) and is co-sponsored by Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO).… Continue Reading

It will take a while to digest the CFPB’s nearly 1,700-page release on payday, title and high-rate installment lending but, naturally, I have a number of preliminary observations:

  1. It remains highly uncertain that the Rule will ever go into effect.  Once Director Cordray leaves office, his successor may have very different views on the costs and benefits of these products and may, at a minimum, want to assure himself or herself that there is a strong basis for the Rule. 
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Much attention has been devoted to the issuance very soon of the CFPB’s small-dollar lending rule.  I thought that once that rule was issued, Richard Cordray would soon thereafter resign as Director to return to Ohio to run for Governor.  However, based on a very reliable source, I now believe that Director Cordray will issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Part I of the debt collection rule (“NPR”) before he resigns. … Continue Reading