Tag Archives: Regulation

The CFPB's long-awaited qualified mortgage standards have been unveiled, and Capital Economics says the new rules "will not hamper the housing recovery."

A new Ohio law to be introduced in March will allow licensed originators from out of state to obtain temporary loan originator licenses while completing requirements to obtain their regular state licenses.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) is calling on the Small Business Administration to review the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) new rule on qualified mortgages, saying the provisions might drive out smaller lenders.

After many long months of waiting, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finally issued its finalized "qualified mortgage" (QM) rule designed to protect both consumers and responsible lenders. One of the biggest provisions of the QM rule is the newly set Ability-to-Repay rule, which does away with so-called "no doc" and "low doc" mortgages. In addition, the CFPB explained there are two kinds of QMs that have different protective features for consumers and legal consequences for lenders.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is easing back on reporting standards for smaller supervised lenders.

With the fiscal cliff negotiation out of the way--at least, the first phase of it--analysts at Barclays assert in a new release that "housing policy is transitioning from being a source of negative headline risk to a potential positive factor for the housing stocks." As the haze surrounding the state of the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID) lifts and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) prepares to make reforms to its business model, analysts note that "anticipated policy changes have been less severe than feared."

As the year draws to a close and many of us reflect on its events, make predictions, and set goals for the new year, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) is doing the same. In an interview included in SmartBrief's 2012 Best Of reports, SIFMA CEO Tim Ryan spoke of the regulatory progress and the lack thereof that has taken place in 2012 and his organization's concerns and expectations for the year ahead.

U.S. banks may have received an extension on their deadline to implement Basel III regulations, but that isn't stopping the global community from introducing reforms at the start of 2013. While a handful of jurisdictions--including the European Union, Korea, Russia, and the United States--are only in the draft stage, the majority of jurisdictions have published the final set of rules to go into effect January 1. While certain members may be getting more time to create finalized rules, the larger implementation timeline will not be shifted.

A newly proposed policy from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) would allow companies to test new consumer disclosures on a case-by-case basis. Under the proposed policy, the CFPB would allow limited-time exemptions from current federal disclosure laws for approved companies. Those companies would use that time to research and test informative, cost-effective disclosures and share the results of their trial with the bureau, which would use the information to improve its own rules and model forms.

A new report from the Center for Responsible Lending asserts that the mortgage industry still has a long way to go before it's out of the woods.