Law and regulation

Homeowners reeling from coronavirus-induced economic shock are already enduring extremely long wait times while trying to get relief. Legislation passed last week could worsen the logjams.

The regulation issued late on Tuesday directs state-regulated financial institutions to give mortgage borrowers at least 90 days of forbearance if they can show financial hardship resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. It also requires banks and credit unions to provide relief on ATM fees and credit card late payment fees.

Regulators' decision to delay reporting for troubled-debt restructurings should allow banks and credit unions to be more nimble modifying loans impaired by the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the Democratic senators argue that task force members cannot be trusted to protect consumers because they have represented payday lenders or Wall Street banks, or worked at law firms that did so.

Nonbanks hold a disproportionate percentage of the worst-rated loans, but banks hold a majority of the market, and risk management safeguards are largely untested, according to an interagency report on shared national credit.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor who has sharply criticized the CFPB as an unaccountable bureaucracy, has been named chair of an agency task force identifying potential conflicts and inconsistencies in consumer finance law.

The state has proposed a law to cap the interest rate on certain consumer loans, but nonbanks aim to skirt it by seeking a rent-a-charter.

Federal and state policymakers wagged their fingers this week at high-cost lenders that might be looking to team with banks to evade a 36% ceiling on interest rates.

Alternative data "may improve the speed and accuracy of credit decisions and may help firms evaluate the creditworthiness of consumers," the agencies said.

The nonbank share of large mortgage servicing is growing, but smaller players tend to be depositories, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found in a new report aimed at examining regulatory impacts.

A proposal by a single utility threatens to upend California’s sweeping mandate requiring solar panels on almost every new home.

The housing finance industry supports a proposed rule revision that would exempt banks regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from an RMBS disclosure requirement.

The end of the qualified mortgage patch should further accelerate non-QM origination growth, but is the mortgage industry ready?

With the qualified mortgage patch expiring and a recession likely, wealth inequities that have hurt black and millennial homeownership could worsen, according to the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

Property values recovered, and in some cases even surpassed housing bubble peaks, but the same can't be said for waning new construction activity, which won't return to historic norms for years, according to Zillow.

The San Francisco company forecast a modest profit in the third quarter because its cost-cutting plans are ahead of schedule. It's also starting a program to sell riskier loans to sophisticated investors.

As officials prepare plans for the government-sponsored enterprises' exit from conservatorship, there's no shortage of speculation about what those plans might look like and how they might affect the mortgage industry.

Although higher corporate debt could hurt the economy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell argued changes made since the last crisis will guard against a meltdown.

The JFSA published a final rule outlining the hoops U.S. CLO managers will have to jump through if Japanese banks are to avoid a higher risk weighting on their holdings; it remains to be seen how much of a burden this will be.

A top official at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions defended tougher underwriting rules blamed recently for a slump in the nation’s housing market, but left open the possibility that regulations could ease if conditions change.