Regulatory relief

Regulators already finalized a rollback of the proprietary trading ban section of the rule but signaled then that their overhaul was not finished.

In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.

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 Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed an overhaul of an Obama-era rule meant to guide local jurisdictions in how they comply with the Fair Housing Act.

Despite assurances by Director Kathy Kraninger that the agency is cracking down on discrimination, it hasn't sent a Department of Justice referral on a fair-lending violation in two years.

The two Democratic senators said the bureau's policy could allow companies to circumvent consumer finance laws.

The agency announced changes meant to reduce compliance costs and allow some institutions to provide estimates rather than disclose exact prices for international money transfers.

The agency’s director previewed a policy for companies under enforcement action to have their orders terminated if they comply ahead of schedule.

The agency’s director previewed a policy for companies under enforcement action to have their orders terminated if they comply ahead of schedule.

Lenders contend the proposal goes beyond policing third-party debt collectors and could expose banks to enforcement actions and lawsuits.

In an update of its rulemaking agenda, the bureau said it "expects to take final action in April 2020" on a proposal that would rescind strong underwriting requirements.

The agency will review the TRID regulation, which combined disclosure requirements of two separate laws, as part of a mandate to evaluate major policies five years after their effective date.

The 2015 decision posed new legal challenges for institutions trying to sell loans to third parties, but the federal regulatory agency proposed steps Monday for banks and debt parties to evade state interest rate caps.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s exemption from the Qualified Mortgage rule is on borrowed time, but a House bill would allow lenders to use the mortgage giants’ guidelines for documenting borrower income.

The reforms will result in significant changes to the proprietary trading ban first proposed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and mandated in the Dodd-Frank Act.

The industry had welcomed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plan allowing debt collectors to use electronic communication, but some worry about the effect of a court decision concerning email correspondence.

The bureau issued three policies removing the threat of legal liability for approved companies that test new products.

The agencies handed banks a significant victory when they finalized revisions to the Dodd-Frank proprietary trading ban, but officials also plan to re-propose changes to the “covered funds” section of the rule.

After two regulatory agencies adopted final revisions to the rule, Dodd-Frank defenders expressed concern that the amendments to the proprietary trading ban undermined the post-crisis statute.

The agencies had proposed an "accounting prong" as an alternative means to determine which proprietary trades are banned, but their final rule heeded industry concerns that that would be worse than the current approach.