The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in the throes of working on financial compliance audits of some of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage lenders and hopes to complete at least one of these audits in the next few weeks, according to industry advisors.
A CFPB spokesperson declined to comment on the audits or identify any of the firms.
Sources familiar with the matter said that four nonbanks—all based in California and all privately held—are going through the audit process now.
State regulators actually charge the lenders they audit, but CFPB audits—as a technical matter—are free. Still, lenders that are being audited hire attorneys and consultants to advise them on how to prepare.
“The CFPB comes in with four to five auditors and a compliance officer who is an attorney,” said one advisor close to the process. “You can spend a lot of money getting ready for these things. You can’t just show them (CFPB) a compliance manual. You have to demonstrate how you are being compliant with state, local and federal lending laws.”
The names of the four firms being audited were provided to National Mortgage News but at deadline these companies had not returned telephone calls for confirmation.
