Ask the CFPB

The CFPB has created a new online form for asking informal staff guidance on questions about CFPB regulations.  From the CFPB’s page: The Bureau’s Office of Regulations offers financial institutions, service providers, and others informal staff guidance on specific questions about the Bureau’s regulations. The Bureau also makes available on its website extensive written implementation and guidance materials, which answer … Read More

CFPB’s Alternative Data Request for Information

The CFPB released a Request for Information into ways to expand access to credit for consumers who are credit invisible or who lack enough credit history to obtain a credit score. Traditional credit history includes a borrower’s payment of debts such as mortgages, credit cards, and other loans. It is used by lenders to decide who can get credit and … Read More

CFPB Request for Information Regarding Consumer Access to Financial Records

The CFPB has launched a formal inquiry into obstacles consumers face in accessing and sharing with third parties personal financial records held by banks and other institutions. The action by the bureau comes amid banking industry concern over a commonly used process called “screen scraping” in which consumers provide their online banking credentials to a third-party app or tool. While … Read More

Proposed Payday Loan Rule – Part 2

The CFPB released its proposed Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans rule on June 2, in coordination with a field hearing on these small-dollar loans.  The 1333 page proposal aims to end payday debt traps, where borrowers seeking a short-term cash fix are saddled with loans they cannot afford and sink into long-term debt. Because of the scope … Read More

Proposed Payday Loan Rule – Part 1

The CFPB released its Proposed Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans Rule on June 2, in coordination with a field hearing on these small-dollar loans.  The 1333 page proposal aims to end payday debt traps, where borrowers seeking a short-term cash fix are saddled with loans they cannot afford and sink into long-term debt. Because of the scope … Read More

CFPB Supervisory Highlights

The CFPB released its 10th Supervisory Highlights, which focuses on consumer reporting, mortgage origination, fair lending, debt collection, remittances and student loan servicing. The credit union’s compliance and auditing staff should review the report to make sure that the credit union does not end up as a “highlight.” A couple of the highlights include: Consumer Reporting The Bureau found that … Read More

CFPB Spring 2016 Rulemaking Agenda

The CFPB’s Spring 2016 Agenda has been published, and it looks like we may have a busy summer.  Compliance folks may want to get some sleep this weekend, because it may be your last chance.  Of the rules on the list, the following may have impact on credit unions. In the Prerule Stage: Business Lending Data (Regulation B) Section 1071 … Read More

CFPB’s Crystal Ball

The CFPB published a fact sheet on the agencies nine priority goals, and its two-year plan to accomplish these.  They provide a little insight on what is coming up on the regulatory horizon.  Listed below are their focuses, and planned steps for the next two years to accomplish them. ARBITRATION The CFPB envisions a consumer financial marketplace where consumers have … Read More

CFPB Takes Steps to Improve Checking Account Access

Through a field hearing on checking account access, the release of an announcement and Compliance Bulletin 2016-01, the CFPB encourages financial institutions to provide lower-risk accounts to consumers that either do not want, or are unable to qualify for an account, that provides overdraft protection. The releases contain a number of items related to this topic. Lower-Risk Product Offering The … Read More

CFPB Provides Clarification on TRID Expectations & Liability

In December, the CFPB responded to a letter from the Mortgage Bankers Association regarding “lingering misperceptions and technical ambiguities” in TRID regulations. The CFPB’s letter states that, given inevitable yet unintentional errors in the early stages of the mortgage industry’s implementation of the regulations, regulators’ initial examinations will focus on industry members’ good faith efforts to ensure compliance with the rule. The CFPB … Read More