Regulatory relief

The industry’s biggest legislative victory in a decade made it to the finish line Thursday.

The bill passed by the House took a more cautious approach to relief than prior legislative proposals but has still been hailed by banking industry groups.

Reducing unnecessary compliance burdens will pave the way for economic growth, larger job creation and wage increases, and re-evaluating technology will play an important role in doing so, according to Craig Phillips, counselor to the secretary at the Department of the Treasury.

JPMorgan Chase has largely sat on the sidelines of Federal Housing Administration lending due to compliance concerns. But recent regulatory relief efforts have Chase Home Mortgage CEO Mike Weinbach eyeing an opportunity to jump back in.

The increased regulatory burden created by the Dodd-Frank Act restricted bank residential lending in 2017, especially when it came to non-qualified mortgages, according to an American Bankers Association survey.

A provision to remove new mortgage recordkeeping requirements would help overburdened community banks lend without disrupting data collection that is used to police discrimination.

The soon-to-be-retiring chair of the House Financial Services Committee said Senate leaders have made a "commitment" to consider more changes.

After months of delay, the House is planning to vote on legislation next week that would amend the Dodd-Frank Act.

Banking and mortgage groups are asking the Federal Communications Commission to issue new Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules that would make consumer lawsuits over robocalls harder to win.

House Republicans are continuing to push the Senate to add more measures to a bill to give regulatory relief to community banks.

House Speaker Paul Ryan's decision not to seek re-election is another sign of the difficulties Republicans will likely face holding the chamber in November, heightening pressure to move a pending regulatory relief bill as soon as possible.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday asked for public input on the way it receives and processes complaints from consumers in what the agency said was a preliminary step toward making improvements.

Questions about the CFPB’s structure, high-profile enforcement actions and the acting director’s rift with Elizabeth Warren could dominate two days of hearings on Capitol Hill.

The acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said he is “pleasantly surprised” with most personnel but raised concerns about those who lean toward the regulatory philosophy of Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

As lawmakers consider reforms to the Dodd-Frank Act, fresh data shows a dramatic reduction in new items issued by the regulatory agencies.

The latest salvo by the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — proposing in the agency's semiannual report that all CFPB rules be subject to congressional approval — left many observers stumped if not outraged.

As part of a larger regulatory relief effort, regulators have raised the dollar-amount threshold for commercial real estate transactions that require a formal appraisal.

Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney proposed dramatic curbs to his agency's power in a report Monday, including a recommendation that all CFPB rules must be approved by Congress.

The new request for information is the 10^th in the series that is part of acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s “call for evidence” to assess the CFPB’s overall effectiveness.

One purpose of the Senate bill was for small banks to rein in skyrocketing costs, but some bankers question whether the changes will save them money, and adapting to the reforms may even increase spending.