Wed, Jul 12 2017, 9:28 AM
Millions of parents around the nation will be sending their ex-high school seniors off to college this autumn. And what better thing to teach them is ...
Fri, Jul 7 2017, 3:33 PM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced final updates to it "Know Before You Owe" mortgage disclosure rule which went into effec...
Thu, May 25 2017, 9:50 AM
Montana may have its issues with politicians vying for the WWE title belt, but the state does seem to steer clear of cyberattacks. At least, it does i...
Tue, May 9 2017, 10:12 AM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is revisiting its 2013 RESPA Mortgage Servicing Rule. The rule, after several amendments, took effect on Janu...
Mon, Apr 24 2017, 9:55 AM
Nature always bats last. Just ask singer Paul Simon who is moving his New York cottage away from the eroding ocean. Thinking about things like "oceans...
Tue, Apr 18 2017, 9:36 AM
There are plenty of companies out there, banks and non-banks, trying to raise money. Since lots of folks like lists, let’s start Tuesday with the top ...
Mon, Apr 17 2017, 3:42 PM
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has inviting comment periods on changes to its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting rule. CFP...
Fri, Apr 7 2017, 9:55 AM
If you think mortgage regulations are running amok, as part of the Affordable Care Act, restaurants with 20 or more locations will soon have to post s...
Mon, Apr 3 2017, 9:33 AM
Welcome to Q2! I am attending the NYMBA conference for a few days, but 1,300 miles south, in Florida (aka "God's waiting room"), folks are talking "re...
Fri, Mar 24 2017, 10:22 AM
In legal news, Experian , one of the nation's three major credit reporting bureaus, misled consumers by telling them that the credit scores they purch...
Thu, Mar 23 2017, 10:15 AM
The House Financial Services Committee (FSC) held a hearing on Tuesday into the constitutionality of the structure of the Consumer Financial Protectio...
Wed, Mar 22 2017, 5:36 PM
“Dance like no one is watching. E-mail like one day it may be read aloud in a deposition.” Here's some pithier legal news. The Department of Justice i...
Mon, Mar 20 2017, 2:39 PM
The House Financial Services Committee has scheduled a hearing on March 21 titled "The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's (CFPB's) Unconstituti...
Thu, Mar 16 2017, 9:50 AM
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is stupid.” Different peopl...
Mon, Mar 13 2017, 10:31 AM
It seems the general public is not moving. Not because they don’t way to, but because of… the influence of government regulations !? The regulatory en...
Thu, Mar 9 2017, 9:34 AM
I have my own opinion about reading a book versus watching YouTube videos, given our finite time every day, but this statistic is staggering: The numb...
Thu, Feb 23 2017, 9:50 AM
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge.” But what if you use knowledge to predict? Research by Goldman Sach...
Wed, Feb 1 2017, 10:21 AM
Although I am now in Phoenix for several days, where house flipping is ramping up again, I was fortunate earlier this week to be able to attend the Te...
Tue, Jan 24 2017, 9:43 AM
Depository banks know that, per the AARP, more than 67% of US assets are controlled by individuals age 50+, with this group representing more than 67%...
Tue, Jan 3 2017, 9:34 AM
(Yes, a paragraph of pure fluff to start the year.) Does anyone handwrite checks anymore? Always a struggle to remember “2017” instead of “2016.” And ...
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...
