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Jun
10
Cfpb What It Means To You
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In the wake of the ongoing real estate recession, the federal government has introduced a variety of measures designed to protect consumers and weed out unprofessional or predatory mortgage loan originators. One of these actions has been the creation of a new federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act) established the CFPB, which was launched in July 2011. Here’s the mission statement of the CFPB: “The central mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans – whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products.”
The basic idea is to heighten government accountability by consolidating into one place a variety of responsibilities that had previously been scattered across various government entities. The CFPB is like a one-stop-shopping center for consumer financial affairs.
Let’s explore what this means to you, the mortgage lending professional, and to your clients. The CFPB’s activities cover three areas: to educate consumers; to enforce federal consumer finance laws; and to gather and analyze relevant information.
What the CFPB Can and Cannot Do
At this time, the CFPB only has the authority to enforce existing regulations that were previously under the control of other agencies. With one or two exceptions discussed below, there are no new CFPB-created laws or regulations that mortgage industry professionals need to learn about. There’s a political reason for this, which I’ll cover later in the article. The CFPB can only streamline existing functions and act as a clearinghouse for consumer complaints.
New Mortgage Disclosure Form
One program that directly impacts lenders is “Know Before You Owe.” This is a participatory effort that consumers and MLOs access through the CFPB’s website at consumerfinance.gov.
As required by federal law, consumers who apply for a mortgage loan receive two forms: a two-page Truth in Lending disclosure form and a three-page Good Faith Estimate. By informing consumers and allowing them to compare mortgage offers, the forms are supposed to help the consumer pick the mortgage product that’s best for them.
The two current forms have overlapping information and can be confusing to consumers. They also needlessly drive up costs and the regulatory burden on lenders. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which created the CFRB, mandated that the CFRB combine these two forms into one.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4wGz8_RyjU[/youtube]
To this end, during the summer of 2011 the CFPB posted on its website two different mortgage loans using the same draft version of a new, simpler disclosure form. Consumers and MLOs are invited to comment.
MLOs can click on the “switch to the industry tool” icon to be taken to the page that features two prototype loan documents for a typical $121,000 loan. The samples (called “Jasmine” and “Nandina”) can be downloaded as pdfs. The prototype forms you can review are designed to combine both the Good Faith Estimate and the initial Truth in Lending disclosure, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. You are invited to review the two loan estimates and choose the loan that you would recommend to your clients.
The CFPB promises that they will post drafts throughout the process, and give consumers and MLOs a quick, simple way to offer opinions on what works and what doesn’t. In the end, the new unified disclosure form will have to work for the consumers and lenders who rely on it every day.
Consumer Mortgage Counseling
For consumers facing foreclosure, the CFPB offers a website portal that helps the consumer get connected to a HUD-approved housing counselor. At no cost to the borrower, the counselor can help them work with their mortgage company to try to avoid foreclosure. The housing counselor will help the borrower organize their finances, understand their mortgage options, and hopefully find a work-out solution that works for them.
HUD provides an online list of foreclosure prevention resources arranged by state. Military members or veterans can call or visit the Veteran Administration’s home loan website to get personalized assistance.
The CFPB encourages at-risk homeowners to call and report foreclosure prevention and loan modification scammers who promise “guaranteed” or “immediate” relief from foreclosure, and who might charge very high fees for little or no services.
For low-income consumers who think they may need legal advice, the CFPB provides a link to the website of the Legal Services Corporation. The LSC is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. The LSC website features a state-by-state directory of organizations offering consumer legal services.
Regulating Mortgage Loan Servicers
Consumer advocates assert that unscrupulous loan servicers do not keep accurate records of ownership payments and escrow accounts, and then falsify court documents to move foreclosures forward. The CFPB can require that companies who collect mortgage payments do not charge illegal fees or enroll a homeowner in overpriced insurance plans, keep accurate records of what the borrower owes, and do not either deliberately or accidentally push a homeowner into foreclosure.
Political Fireworks
So far, the impact of the creation of the CFPB has created more political fireworks than tangible change to the professional lives of mortgage loan originators and consumers.
Most people know the CFPB as the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren. She is a Harvard law professor who served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created to oversee the U.S. banking bailout (known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP). She later served as assistant to the president and special advisor to the secretary of the treasury for the CFPB, was a driving force behind the creation of CFPB, and as the special advisor she worked on implementation of the CFPB.
The CFPB has become a political football. In part because it is one of the strongest provisions of Dodd-Frank, the CFPB has been vigorously opposed by Republicans in Congress. Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) called it “one of the greatest assaults on economic liberty in my lifetime,” while Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said the CFPB was shaping up to be “the most powerful agency ever created.” Three times in one week in March the Wall Street Journal opinion page denounced Warren and the CFRB; this was four months before the agency opened its doors for business.
On May 13, 2011, the House Financial Services Committee passed three bills designed to weaken the CFPB. Freshman Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) denounced the CFPB as a rogue agency with an authoritarian structure and introduced legislation to give existing banking regulators greater authority to override the bureau’s new rules. Other bills passed by the committee sought to prevent the bureau from assuming power until the Senate confirms a director, and to change the structure of the bureau from a single director to a bipartisan commission.
Forty-four Senate Republicans announced they would not approve any nominee for the CFPB unless the GOP restructuring proposals were implemented.
Republican legislators take the position that the CFPB has the potential to become a powerful federal regulatory agency that exists beyond the direct control of Congress. In a statement released by his office in April 2011, Representative Duffy said, “This new agency has broad, far-reaching powers and these powers are all assigned to one individual, who is a political designee. I believe in the system of checks and balances, and I also believe that consumers deserve a financial system that is safe, sound and accountable.” Democrats take a more benign view and point to the presumed benefits that the CFPB will bring to consumers and the lending industry.
In response to Republican actions, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a statement of administration policy saying that President Obama would veto Representative Duffy’s legislation, which is called the “Consumer Financial Protection Safety and Soundness Improvement Act,” or House Resolution 1315, if it were sent to the president for his signature.
White House officials say they object to provisions that would change the leadership structure of the CFPB from a single director to a five-person commission; delay the transfer of certain consumer financial protection responsibilities from seven other agencies to the CFPB; and add additional congressional oversight provisions to the CFPB.
The Future of CFPB
Ordinarily, someone like Elizabeth Warren might have been a logical choice to become the director of the agency. But in the face of Republican opposition, President Obama chose not to nominate her to run the CFRB. The president instead nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for the post, and his nomination faces stiff Republican opposition.
Congressional Republicans know that until the CFPB has a confirmed director in place, the agency is restricted to enforcing existing consumer protection regulations and would not be expected to propose any new rules.
What should you do? If you want to take part in the CFPB’s effort to consolidate the two different mortgage loan forms into one simpler disclosure form, log onto to CFPB website and cast your vote. Then stay tuned for further developments from Washington!
David Reinholtz
Article Source: sooperarticles.com/finance-articles/mortgage-articles/cfpb-what-means-you-654494.html
About Author:
David Reinholtz is a professional Mortgage expert in Real Estate Industry .David is also a sales and marketing expert and trains professionals in every career field. David has personally trained tens of thousands of loan officers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and individuals through The Close More University Seminar Series, LoanOfficerSchool.com Classes , Correspondence and On Line Learning, and countless private engagements and training events throughout the country. David is the Founder and CEO of LoanOfficerSchool.com, an approved education provider for The Conference of State Bank Supervisors and The National Mortgage Licensing Systems’ (NMLS) required pre-licensing education and continuing education. You can contact David at (866) 623-1250 or email at operations@loanofficerschool.comAuthor: David Reinholtz
Jun
10
News briefs:July 20, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
According to Democratic Senator Mark Begich from Alaska, the U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to halt all new Arctic exploratory oil drilling applications until 2011. The response is believed to be caused in part by the two current oil spill disasters (that of the Deepwater Horizon Incident and more recently the Alaska oil pipeline malfunction). However, Begich is not happy about the actions taken by the White House.
“I am frustrated that this decision by the Obama administration to halt offshore development for a year will cause more delays and higher costs for domestic oil and gas production to meet the nation’s energy needs,” Begich claims.
Last September, the state of Alaska made a public notice about Shell’s desire to drill off the coast of the Beaufort Sea, placing experimental drilling rigs at two drill site location: “Torpedo” and “Sivulliq”.
“Shell is committed to undertaking a safe and environmentally responsible exploration program in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in 2010,” said Shell Oil Company President Marvin E. Odum to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Mineral Management Service (MMS).
Odum follows with, “I am confident that we are ready to conduct the 2010 Arctic exploratory program safely and, I want to be clear, the accountability for this program rests with Shell.”
Chuck Clausen, director of the Alaska project at the National Resources Defense Council is not so optimistic: “Hazards present in the Arctic can include frigid temperatures, presence of sea ice, gale-force winds, intense storms and heavy fog … The potential for loss in the Arctic is great.”
Odum believes that the climate in the arctic will make any spill easier to clean up because, “Arctic conditions create differences in responding to oil in cold and ice conditions. Differences in evaporation rates, viscosity and weathering provide greater opportunities to recover oil. In Arctic conditions, ice can aid oil spill response by slowing oil weathering, dampening waves, preventing oil from spreading over large distances, and allowing more time to respond.”
However, Clausen believes that there are no current systems to remove oil from icy ocean waters.
This is not the first time that President Obama’s administration has taken the environmentally cautious path in Alaska. The President put Bristol Bay off limits to oil and gas exploration until 2017. Bristol Bay currently is one of the top salmon fishing grounds in the state.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to give a speech at Thursday’s White House address, regarding the suspension of Arctic oil drilling projects.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Romanian President Traian B?sescu signed an order yesterday recalling Romania’s ambassadors to three European Union countries – Austria, Lithuania and Greece, as well as Croatia. The Romanian embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, is also accredited to represent Romania’s interests in Latvia.
All five of the recalled ambassadors were appointed by the previous administration, under President Ion Illiescu. The recall is part of an ongoing process of replacing Romanian ambassadors abroad, with the present government planning to recall nearly all diplomats appointed by the previous administration.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai R?zvan Ungureanu, said that the recall was not based on political criteria, or as a way of politically undermining the choices of the previous administration, but rather on the efficiency of the diplomats as well as their age, seeing as many of them are past retirement age.
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Handmade Baby Shower Ideas for Girls
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babyshower
A baby shower is an exciting time for the mother-to-be, as well as for her friends and family. Handmade gifts, decorations and favors help add a unique and personal touch to this special event, and can easily be customized to suit an arriving baby girl. With a few simple and creative ideas, you can make handmade crafts that all the guests will treasure and that honor the mother-to-be.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXM7twD0t-U[/youtube]
Tins or Baby Bottles Filled with Pink Candy Tins or baby bottles filled with candy can make cute and charming baby shower favors, as well as decoration to celebrate the birth of a baby girl. Purchase tins or baby bottles from a craft store and fill them with pink colored candy. Decorate the tins or baby bottles with ribbons or small baby charms. Place the filled baby bottles or tins onto every place at each table so that every guest can take one home. Personalize them by adding custom labels to each favor. Pink Candle Favors Handmade pink candles make pretty favors idea for a baby shower. These feminine candles can be used as decoration during the party before being presented as baby shower favors for the guests after the fun. Purchase pink pillar candles and paper or silk flowers from a craft store. Measure around the candles and the flowers and decide how much space you want between each flower. Mark out lightly on the candle where you want the flowers to be, before securing the flowers around the candle using jeweled pins or brads. Baby Shower Gift Baskets A baby shower gift basket designed for a girl can be made for decoration or as a gift for the mother and father. Find a suitable container, such as a wicker basket, storage box, gift box or tote bag. Line the container with a blanket, soft towel or tissue paper and fill either with baby necessities, including a soft toy and keepsake, or things just for the mother-to-be, such as gourmet food or a pampering kit. Decorate by tying pink ribbon around the handles of the container and adding a pink helium balloon for a finishing touch. Alternatively, wrap your filled container up in cellophane, twist it to close and tie with a pink ribbon and bow. Handmade Centerpiece Ideas Adorning each table at the baby shower with handmade centerpieces adds a unique and personal touch to the party. If the baby shower has a theme, try to incorporate it into the centerpiece decorations. Make lollipops from pink washcloths, sticks and cellophane and place in a small container filled with pink candy. The lollipops and candy container can be put in the center of the table and offered as cute favors if desired. Fresh flowers placed in clear vases that are filled with sliced fruit are unique and simple baby shower centerpiece ideas to make by hand. You could even create edible centerpieces with containers filled with pink candy, pink cupcakes displayed in a tower or a fruit bouquet made with fresh fruit on skewers in a vase. Throw a baby shower can be costly, when prices begin to accumulate. However, almost all commonly purchased for a baby shower favors to invitations to decorations, can also be handmade. Call your girlfriends over to help work on your crafts baby shower, and save your money for diapers and formula, you will need later. please vist: Invitesbaby.com
The Author of this article is an expert on the latest trends pertaining to
Baby Shower Invitations
. She has written many informative articles on baby shower and products such as
Baby Girl Shower Invitations
.
Article Source:
ArticleRich.com
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Correction — January 23, 2006 Cyclist Floyd Landis failed a drugs test for the hormone testesterone, not adrenaline as reported in the article.
Track Star Marion Jones, winner of 3 gold medals in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has tested positive for the performance enhancing drug, EPO. The hormone helps create extra red blood cells which allows the user’s body to absorb extra oxygen.
Jones was expected to compete in yesterday’s Golden League meet in Zurich, Switzerland, but left early in the morning for “personal reasons.” It was announced earlier today (UTC) that she had tested positive for EPO. Jones faces a two year ban if her B test sample comes back positive.
Jones has a history of association with steroid users and dealers. In 1999, her then husband CJ Hunter tested positive for a similar drug, Nandralone. He had to withdraw from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and received a two year ban.
Jones later divorced him, and in 2002 started a relationship with another track star, Tim Montgomery, who were both coached by Trevor Grahm.
Montgomery set a record in the 100 meter sprint of 9.78 seconds at a race in Paris that year. He was banned for two years and stripped of his record due to evidence in the Federal BALCO investigation. In the BALCO investigation, several witnesses stated that Marion Jones was taking banned substances received from BALCO.
Jones’ coach, Grahm, has been involved with 10 other athletes that tested positive and were ultimately banned for the use of illegal substances. Justin Gatlin, also coached by Grahm, also tested positive for artificial Testosterone, but has not been banned or stripped of his record.
Another American athlete, cyclist Floyd Landis tested positive for excessive levels of adrenaline after winning the Tour-de-France, which may lead to him being the first winner in the tournament’s history to be stripped of the title.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, yesterday announced the 2009 budget. The budget is an annual audit of the nation’s finances, and decides what should be done with taxpayers’ money.
The chancellor fell under scorn for his GDP growth forecasts, which are considered to be too optimistic in predicting that Britain will bounce back from its weakest economic performance since the end of the second world war. Darling forecast GDP growth of 3.5% in 2011, even after he was made to downgrade his predictions. He expects a record expansion of 1.25% next year, but chief UK economist Howard Archer disagrees, calling Darling’s predictions “mildly optimistic in the near term and much more optimistic in the long term.”
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His plans for savers and pensioners, however, were commended by many, though was also criticised by a large portion of the populace. In the budget, Darling increased the amount that savers can put into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) from £7,200 to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. These increased limits will be available only to people aged over 50 from 6 October this year, and will not be available to everyone until 6 April next year. A number of financial experts described the move as being “too little, too late”, and Rumina Hassam, of price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: “The government’s decision to increase the cash ISA limit by £1,500 to £5,100 for the over 50’s is a just another kick in the teeth for the majority of savers as they will have to wait even longer to benefit. There is no doubt that savers have been sacrificed as a result of the plummeting base rate, bringing savings rates to an all time low.”
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Six applicants to join the Alabama Department of Corrections and their driver have been killed after the prison van they were traveling in collided with an 18-wheeled truck. Both vehicles burned at the scene.
Andrew David Carter, who was driving the Lewis Trucking Company truck with a cargo of treated lumber, escaped the wreck without serious injury. He was briefly hospitalised and released. The deceased have been identified as driver Rodney Kelley, and applicants Julius Erving Douier, Lionel Michael Moore, John Henry Foye Jr., Brandon Jamaal Anglin, Henry Louis Simmons, and Derrick Lamar Ivey. The oldest victim was 45 and the youngest nearly 19.
The wreck occurred on Alabama’s Route 82 near Bullock County, having left Bullock Correctional Facility to travel to Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore County for mental and physical fitness tests on the passengers before employment with the state.
The road was closed for eight hours while bodies and wreckage were recovered. As well as the van and the truck cab, part of the trucks cargo and several hundred square feet of nearby timber land were consumed by the fire. An investigation is ongoing, but it appears that the truck crossed the center line and there are no skid marks present.
The relatives of the victims will be offered counseling by the Department of Corrections.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Arcelor, Luxembourg’s largest steel company, has reached in an agreement with Mittal Steel over a €26.9 billion merger (at €40.44 per share). The new company will be called Arcelor-Mittal. Mittal Steel will hold 45% stake in the new company. Arcelor would pay Severstal €130 million as a “fine” for the fall-out of their failed talks. Lakshmi Mittal (owner of Mittal Steel) and Joseph Kinsch (current Arcelor chairman) will be the co-chairmen of the new company. The new company will have a net capacity of 120 million tonnes.
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Following a Senate hearing in which the Bush administration’s nominee for EPA administrator, Stephen Johnson, stoutly defended his plan to pay parents to document the effects on infants of insecticide use in the home, he reversed course and stopped the program.
Among the original requirements for the 60 families requested to be participants in the “Children’s Health Environmental Exposure Research Study” (CHEERS) study according to EPA were that they must:
- Live in Duval County, Florida
- Be a parent of a child under the age of 13 months
- Spray or apply or have pesticides sprayed or applied inside your home on a routine basis (You do not need to change your regular household routine for the study.)
This original version of the requirements can be viewed in the Internet Archive, a free online repository that creates copies of websites on a regular basis. The third requirement was reworded by November 2004, according to the Internet Archive: “Maintain your normal pesticide or non-pesticide use patterns for your household. We will not ask any parent to apply pesticides in their home to be a part of this study.”
According to the above document, the area of Jacksonville/Duval County was chosen for reasons of existing year-round high usage of pesticides and other household chemicals within the home, as well as relevant data from existing prior studies. The study involved researchers visiting the home of participants, parents videotaping their children’s activities with a supplied camcorder, children wearing a small “activity sensor”, and parents collecting food and urine samples for detailed analysis of the effects of chemical exposure to common commercially available chemicals, primarily pesticides, on which “current information… is very limited” [1].
Selection for the study began in fall 2004. As incentives for their participation in the planned two-year study, parents were to be given $970, a t-shirt, and other gifts, and would have kept the video camera at its conclusion.
Complaining that the study was necessary, Johnson yielded to two Democratic Senators who had threatened to block him, using all means available, from officially taking the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, of which he is the acting head. The block on his nomination was lifted afterwards although some Democratic Senators would not say how they would vote on the final nomination.
Under his guidance, the EPA agreed to accept $2 million for the controversial $9 million CHEERS study from an industry trade group, the American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical insecticide manufacturers. The study was to be conducted with the cooperation of the Duval County Health Department, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson, (D-FLA), demanded the cancellation of the study as proof of Johnson’s acknowledgement of what she called a “gross error in judgment”.
“The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way,” Boxer said. She added that testing on humans should not be a part of any United States environmental policy.
“I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children,” Boxer said.
Work on the study was halted last November by Johnson while an independent review of the study’s design was conducted at his request. Part of the reason for the study’s current cancellation was what the EPA in its press release has termed “mischaracterization” of the nature of the study as though children were being deliberately sprayed with pesticides.
Johnson defended his approach, “I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy. I am committed to ensuring that EPA’s research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards.”
In November 2004, William Farland, an administrator with the EPA’s research department, told The Oregonian, “There’s no suggestion that we are asking them to use pesticides. We simply want them to continue to carry out their day-to-day activities.”