According to Housing Wire today, “President-elect Joe Biden announced several appointments Monday, including FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
“Chopra is a CFPB veteran, having previously served as assistant director, where he was the bureau’s top student loan watchdog. In 2011, the Secretary of the Treasury appointed him to serve as the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman, a new position established in the financial reform law. As one of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s, D-Mass., first hires as she constructed the CFPB, Chopra was on the ground floor as the bureau was built. He has also served as special advisor at the U.S. Department of Education.”
As we predicted, this move was expected and signals a shift towards greater regulation of the mortgage banking industry and the financial industry generally. Lenders need to examine their regulatory and compliance tools to make sure they are prepared for stepped-up oversight, more frequent audits, and consent order/penalties for non-compliance. This will not be a “hands-off” agency.
In addition, look for enhanced regulatory scrutiny regarding lending bias, consumer protection, and data privacy and security issues.
For more about how Secure Insight can help you prevent wire and closing fraud and also help you meet your obligation to protect consumers from harm, visit us at http://www.SecureInsight.com.
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