What We're Hearing

It appears that House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank has signed off on the idea of placing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency inside the Federal Reserve. After all, in years past the Fed has done such a wonderful job of enforcing mortgage-related laws, it only makes sense. Right? Actually, non bank mortgage lenders and even depositories may not have much to fear from the creation of a CFPA because such an agency will only have oversight over very large institutions, that is, firms with $10 billion or more in assets. (At least, that's the last number I saw, but the asset threshold may've changed by now.) In the pending legislation, mortgage bankers are keeping a watchful eye on language related to loan underwriting, yield spread premiums, appraisals, "qualified" mortgage assets, and risk retention on MBS...