Tue, Dec 27 2016, 9:08 AM
How has it been ten years since James Brown passed away? And now George Michael. (I guess no matter how much money you have, or how famous you are...)...
Tue, Dec 20 2016, 9:49 AM
The whole world is changing! There are 500 McDonalds in the United States that currently offer table service. The bring-your-burger-to-you trial has p...
Fri, Dec 16 2016, 9:18 AM
The Fed reports US household net worth soared to a record $90.2 trillion in Q3, as the stock market jumped and housing prices increased. One group of ...
Thu, Dec 8 2016, 9:39 AM
“I find it ironic that the colors red, white, and blue stand for freedom, until they're flashing behind you.” The OCC doesn’t have flashing lights, bu...
Wed, Nov 30 2016, 10:07 AM
Underwriters’ hands are tied in using income from something the Federal Government considers illegal. For example, Washington State had nearly $212 mi...
Wed, Nov 23 2016, 10:22 AM
My cat Myrtle is old school. A traditionalist. Even though she has never said it out loud, I know that she doesn’t approve of me putting one space aft...
Mon, Nov 21 2016, 11:56 AM
“Made up my mind to make a new start…Going to California with an aching in my heart. Someone told me there's a girl out there, with love in her eyes a...
Fri, Nov 18 2016, 10:54 AM
Digital records are giving consumers tremendous new opportunities , Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) told ...
Thu, Nov 17 2016, 10:13 AM
The FDIC reports banks paid $37.5 billion in taxes through Q2. That’s a lot. In individual tax news, the Mortgage Bankers Association sent out a joint...
Thu, Nov 10 2016, 10:43 AM
The BLS reports 5 of the 10 fastest growing jobs pay less than $25k per year . I wonder what percentage of real estate agents earn that? Realtors have...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 12:49 PM
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chief Richard Cordray announced on Thursday that his agency had issued warning letters regarding reporting...
Fri, Oct 28 2016, 11:38 AM
Here’s a letter that, as a lender, you probably don’t want to receive from the CFPB. Remember that the CFPB runs HMDA now, and fired this shot across ...
Thu, Oct 27 2016, 10:42 AM
Want to lend money? A common evaluation framework is the Five C's of Credit : capacity, capital, collateral, conditions and character. Let's see what'...
Wed, Oct 12 2016, 9:51 AM
“This is a case about executive power and individual liberty. The U.S. Government’s executive power to enforce federal law against private citizens…is...
Wed, Oct 12 2016, 1:17 PM
A federal appeals court has set aside a massive fine against mortgage lender PHH Corporation and declared that the Consumer Financial Protection Burea...
Fri, Sep 30 2016, 10:35 AM
Are you sure that you want to keep originating FHA loans? There’s a lot of profit per loan, but it is easy to see why some companies like Chase have r...
Wed, Sep 21 2016, 5:13 PM
"Credit unions are thriving " in the words of Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). He told members of the Nat...
Thu, Sep 15 2016, 10:14 AM
Being a compliance officer isn’t a barrel of laughs. How many compliance officers it takes to screw in a lightbulb? 3. It takes 1 to change the bulb, ...
Fri, Sep 9 2016, 10:14 AM
I own a shovel. Actually I own a couple of them. So do my neighbors. Do we use them all the time? No. Plenty of time elapses between shovel use. The s...
Mon, Aug 1 2016, 9:14 AM
Have you ever heard of the AARMR? I know – as if this industry needs yet another acronym. Pronounced by those “in the know” as “armor,” it is the Amer...
Fri, Jul 29 2016, 12:44 PM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is
proposing changes to its Know Before You Owe Mortgage Disclosure Act, usually
referred to in the ...
Thu, Jul 21 2016, 10:39 AM
Happy 6th year-old-birthday to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Or is it the CFPB’s 5th “birthday”? For those new to the...
Fri, Jun 24 2016, 11:24 AM
After two years of supervision and examinations of mortgage
servicers by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) the agency has criticized
t...
Mon, Jun 20 2016, 10:40 AM
To start off the week, besides the first full moon on a summer solstice since 1967, here’s an interesting Bloomberg chart about the Federal governme...
Wed, Jun 15 2016, 9:58 AM
The Fed’s latest report on household debt and credit finds US households owed $12.25 trillion at the end of the first quarter, up 1.1% from the end of...
Thu, Jun 9 2016, 10:15 AM
Today I am in Albany for the NY MBA conference , but yesterday I was in Las Vegas with its hordes of retirees. People who say they want to live to be...
Fri, Jun 3 2016, 9:41 AM
“Rob, do you know of any banks looking to buy pools of home equity lines of credit?” Ah, the Holy Grail for plenty of non-bank lenders. You can check ...
Fri, May 27 2016, 10:01 AM
Do you think your company’s computer system is immune from hacking? It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” – just ask Equifax about its data breaches...
Mon, May 2 2016, 10:21 AM
Do mortgage loan originators think that they can’t go to prison for something they did ten years ago? They'd better think again . And let's not f...
Fri, Apr 29 2016, 11:26 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPB) just opened the door to possible changes and refinements in its Know Before You Owe rule. The agenc...
Fri, Apr 29 2016, 10:37 AM
“They” say plenty of things about time flying as you grow older. (“Life is like a toilet paper role – the closer you get to the end the faster it goes...
Thu, Apr 14 2016, 9:23 AM
I found this article particularly enticing considering the change in banking/regulatory models over the last few years, and the downside risk for an...
Wed, Apr 13 2016, 10:44 AM
There is a lot of news today, ranging from political maneuvering through Chase’s earnings and on to the PHH/CFPB court case. But how about this one: ...
Tue, Mar 29 2016, 11:41 AM
Sweden, with its population of about 9.6 million about the same as Michigan, just adopted a law limiting mortgage loans to 105 years. Our 30-year fixe...
Wed, Mar 9 2016, 9:08 AM
Regulators don't like the unregulated, and in what some would term, "the CFPB inviting more into its boat to be bashed with oars," it announced it is ...
Fri, Feb 26 2016, 2:42 PM
In a speech this week to its Consumer Advisory Board the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) laid out nine goals for the Bur...
Fri, Feb 19 2016, 10:36 AM
"A man goes to his nearest zoo. He walks around the entire place and the only animal there is a dog. It was a shih tzu." In a similar vein, I guess, b...
Wed, Feb 3 2016, 9:08 AM
I
spent some time at the Texas Mortgage Banker's event earlier this week
in Houston, and some of the discussion revolved around another refi
bo...
Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:58 AM
Rumors are swirling that AIG has decided to pursue a partial spin-off of its mortgage insurance business,
United Guaranty (UG). Stay tuned for t...
Thu, Jan 14 2016, 5:26 PM
Our old standby for information on all-things-CFPB has
slammed a new "fact sheet" issued by the agency regarding the treatment of construction-to-per...
Wed, Jan 13 2016, 9:55 AM
Dodd-Frank
rules require public companies to provide their shareholders with an
advisory vote (non-binding) on the compensation of the most highly...
Wed, Dec 30 2015, 10:39 AM
Death
is rarely funny, and the aftermath can be even worse. But here's an
interesting twist on things. Even in our digital world where e-mortgages...
Fri, Dec 11 2015, 10:56 AM
Women who own small businesses in the United
States are overall more satisfied than their male counterparts with
their banking experience, accordi...
Wed, Dec 2 2015, 10:53 AM
"I
spent half my money on gambling, women, and booze. The other half I
wasted." Not that politicians would ever waste money - after all, they
ca...
Mon, Nov 30 2015, 9:30 AM
Hiring
can be tough during the holidays for a variety of reasons. Plenty of
people don't want to make a move, have full pipelines destined to clo...
Wed, Nov 18 2015, 10:58 AM
Where
the heck did 40 years go? Call any person who underwrites loans or
draws docs and ask if they'd like to do that for 40 straight years. The
...
Tue, Nov 10 2015, 10:11 AM
Title companies , as well as real estate agents , find themselves in the middle of the MSA discussion.
Marketing and Services Agreements (MSAs) whe...
Tue, Oct 20 2015, 11:49 AM
In what seemed to us to be a very long speech for him, Richard Cordray,
Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spoke of three major
ch...
Thu, Oct 8 2015, 1:57 PM
Saying it was "deeply concerned" about how marketing
services agreements are undermining consumer safeguards against kickbacks, the
Consumer Finan...
Fri, Sep 25 2015, 10:35 AM
"Rob,
do you think that the CFPB is involved in monitoring price gouging by
companies of any sort? For example, I read about a drug company that...
