When the CFPB’s loan officer compensation proposal came out late Wednesday night nonbank mortgage lenders and loan brokers hit the roof. Some trade group officials thought the young agency actually understood the mortgage market, thinking it would do what is best for consumers – which brokers believe would benefit them. But now all that thinking has fallen into the ditch. Brokers believe the commercial banking giants have the ear of Richard Cordray who is fostering the White House’s goal of turning the mortgage industry over to the megabanks. But perhaps JPMorgan Chase’s $2 billion trading disaster (which broke Thursday afternoon) will set the CFPB straight. Meanwhile the central question that Cordray and the CFPB need to ask is this: are mortgage applicants really better served by bank LOs who don’t have to meet the same educational requirements as nonbank LOs?
