FHFA Proposes Forced Place Insurance Reform Force-placed insurance underwriters would be prohibited from paying fees and commissions to banks that own or service home mortgages that are either delinquent or in foreclosure under a proposal released for comment last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).  Consumer groups, who had been highly critical of … Continued

Senate Banking Committee Advances Financial Appointments Meeting in executive session Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development voted along party lines to confirm Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) while giving strong bipartisan support to the nomination of Mary Jo White as Chairman of the Securities and … Continued

President, Congress Urged to Pursue Strong Consumer Agenda In joint letters to President Obama and Congressional leaders, eight of the nation’s leading consumer organizations urged policymakers to pursue a strong, robust agenda of consumer reforms.  With the President’s second term and a new session of Congress underway, the groups identified nine major initiatives, including measures … Continued

CFPB Final Rule Cements Important Consumer Mortgage Protections After nearly two years of work and public comment, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule earlier this month implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s “ability to repay” and “Qualified Mortgage” (QM) provisions.  In a press statement, CFA Director of Housing Barry Zigas gave the rule … Continued

Congress Acts to Protect Service Members from High Cost Credit Service members using higher-cost credit products, such as payday and auto title loans, will be better protected from abusive interest rates and loan security requirements as the result of recently passed amendments to the Military Lending Act (MLA).  The amendments were included in the conference … Continued

Government Role in Mortgage Securitization Remains a Necessity The nation’s mortgage system needs a stable and dependable securitization model to assure consumers access to affordable long term mortgage loans, and building a modernized system on the current Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac platform is a welcome move, CFA said in comments filed in early December with the … Continued

Senate Bill Would Undermine Independent Agencies, Harm Consumers The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is scheduled to mark up a bill (S. 3468) during the lame duck session that would impose onerous new cost-benefit analysis requirements on independent regulatory agencies and subject significant policies of these agencies to detailed review by the … Continued

CFA Offers Tips for Getting Fair Claims Payments in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy Expecting that Hurricane Sandy will result in hundreds of thousands of claims for wind damage by homeowners and tens of thousands of federal flood insurance claims, CFA issued advice to consumers on how to get fair claims payments.  Because so many … Continued

Poultry Slaughter Proposal Threatens Food and Worker Safety A coalition of 24 consumer, labor, public health, and civil rights groups and 16 individuals have called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withdraw a proposal that would increase poultry processing line speeds and remove hundreds of federal inspectors from poultry processing plants.  The coalition criticized … Continued

Obama Administration Raises Fuel Economy Standard The Obama Administration announced last week that it would adopt a federal fuel economy standard of 54.5 mpg for passenger vehicles by the year 2025.  “This is not only a big win for consumers, it is vital to the U.S. auto industry and the single most important thing we … Continued

SEC Reverses Course on JOBS Act Rulemaking In a victory for investors and the integrity of the rulemaking process, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Mary Schapiro has decided to follow standard rulemaking procedures in adopting its first major rule implementing the controversial, anti-investor JOBS Act.  The Commission had planned to implement the law’s provision … Continued

House Votes to Prevent Federal Agencies from Protecting Consumers The U.S. House of Representatives adopted H.R. 4078, the so-called “Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act” on a largely partisan 245 to 172 vote last week.  Two Republicans voted against the bill, while 13 Democrats voted for it.  The legislation consists of seven … Continued

House and Senate Bills on Financial Regulatory Funding Differ Starkly Appropriations bills covering key regulatory agencies involved in implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act advanced in both the House and the Senate last month.  While the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the President’s proposed funding increases for both the Securities and Exchange … Continued

CFPB Reopens Comment Period on “Qualified Mortgage” Proposal With approximately 1,800 comments already filed in response to a proposed rulemaking, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has reopened the comment period on the controversial “Qualified Mortgage” and “Ability to Repay” regulation for 30 days.  Citing extensive public interest in the proposed rulemaking, the Bureau has … Continued

Insurers Can Manipulate Computer Systems to Underpay Claims Computerized claims systems used by most of the nation’s largest insurance companies can easily be adjusted to make broad-scale “lowball” claims payments to injured consumers, payments that are less than what they should receive under their insurance policies, according to a new study released by CFA last … Continued

Proposed Poultry Inspection Inadequate to Protect Consumers In comments submitted last week to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS), CFA raised serious concerns about the department’s proposal to modernize poultry slaughter inspection.  “The proposal will replace federal inspectors sworn to protect the public health with plant employees who answer … Continued

FSIS Traceback Policy Proposal Would Improve Food Safety In an important step forward for food safety, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a proposal earlier this month to implement new procedures when raw ground meat tests presumptive positive for E. coli O157:H7 to trace the contaminated meat back to … Continued

Consumer, Lender Groups Offer Recommendations on Mortgage Underwriting With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reportedly nearing a decision on new rules under Dodd-Frank for underwriting mortgages, CFA, the Center for Responsible Lending, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Clearing House Association (an association of the largest banks that currently account for … Continued

President Obama Announces Initiatives to End Excessive Oil Speculation Responding to high gasoline prices, President Obama outlined a plan last week to reduce the excessive oil speculation that is a key contributor to high prices. Earlier this month, CFA Research Director Mark Cooper participated in a press briefing with Americans for Financial Reform in which … Continued

Congress Approves Anti-Investor JOBS Act Despite strong opposition from current and former securities regulators, capital markets experts, institutional investors, securities law experts, and public interest organizations, the House gave final approval last week to H.R. 3606, the JOBS Act, legislation that rolls back investor protections in the name of creating jobs.  The administration actively pushed … Continued

House Passes Anti-Investor JOBS Act As expected, the House of Representatives approved the JOBS Act (H.R. 3606) last week with strong bipartisan support despite growing expressions of opposition from investors, seniors, unions, and securities law experts.  Backed by the Administration, the bill packages together a number of measures that purport to ease access to capital … Continued

Consumer Groups Support Fuel Economy Standard Increase CFA and 23 consumer groups filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week in support of the Administration’s proposal to increase fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  The submission included an analysis by CFA Research Director … Continued

“Robo-Signing” Settlement Announced The Department of Justice, HUD and nearly all the state attorneys general announced last week that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle a more than year-long investigation into so-called “robo-signing” and other servicer violations of their responsibilities to homeowners.  Since the financial crisis began, an estimated 4 million owners … Continued