Anyone who has purchased a home knows how stressful the closing of amortgage loan can be. A typical closing — the meeting to complete the loan — involves signing stacks of legal-size documents laden with financial jargon. Borrowers may be anxious about the amount of money involved and worry about whether they understand the forms they’re signing. Document packages can total 100 pages or more, and closings can take hours. More...

1. The CFPB does not have any financial oversight from Congress and is not accountable for its regulatory actions to Congress or any government regulatory agency. 2. The Bureau has jurisdiction to create regulations that impact almost every aspect of the financial industry—from banking services and mortgages to realtors and retailers. Broad powers previously split between seven different federal agencies now belong exclusively to the CFPB. more...

The broad scope of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s authority affects the way it views a real estate transaction, as evidenced by some of the new language being adopted and made part of the real estate mortgage lexicon. For instance, on CFPB-promulgated documents the borrower is now referred to as “the consumer.” The lender is “the creditor.” And when the deal is approved and finally ready to go, you won’t attend a closing; now, it’s “the consummation.” More...

Reprited from Inman News (www.inman.com) Takeaways: What’s the CFPB? What’s the ability-to-pay rule? What happens when that rule is violated? What does it have to do with the new Closing Disclosure that will replace HUD-1? Real estate professionals know the HUD-1 well. “Please send me an updated HUD-1″ — the term rolls easily off the tongue with no hesitation. As well it should. It’s been the law of the land since 1974 when the Department of Housing and Urban Development mand

Reprinted from the Legal Intelligencer. Two class action lawsuits are winding their way through the courts in Pennsylvania. Both involve county clerks as plaintiffs, and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., or MERS, either as a defendant or a participant in allegedly fraudulent practices. They both point to larger problems within the residential mortgage sector. Read more...