5 things your really need to know for the weeks and months ahead
by. Henry Meier
You can tell we’re on the brink of the holiday season. Our regulators and policy makers are rushing to get stuff out the door before things slow to a snail’s pace. Here are the major things in descending order of importance that you should take a look at when you get a chance.
1. NCUA announced that, barring unforeseen developments, there shall be no corporate stabilization fund assessments in 2014. The announcement follows the Justice Department’s record settlement with J.P. Morgan over allegations of mortgage fraud which included $1.4 billion for NCUA. Let’s give credit where it’s due, the NCUA deserves a lot of credit for leading the charge on this one.
2. As you probably already know, on Wednesday afternoon the CFPB released its final regulations (http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/a-final-rule-that-makes-mortgage-disclosure-better-for-consumers/) replacing the Good Faith Estimate the “early TILA” and the HUD-1 with two new disclosures; one to be given at the beginning of the mortgage selection process, the other to be given three days before closing. First, the good news. The CFPB backed away from its initial proposal to increase the number of fees that would have to be included in calculating the APR on mortgage documents. This means that we don’t have to worry about learning new calculations or explaining to prospective home buyers that their mortgages aren’t any more expensive than they used to be, they just look that way. In addition, the CFPB has given us until August 2015 to fully implement these new disclosures.
The only really bad news I can find so far is that the CFPB didn’t back away from its requirement that closing notices be provided three business days before the closing, but even this has a silver lining. The CFPB gave homebuyers much greater flexibility to waive the three-day requirement.
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