The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a plan to share mortgage servicing data as borrowers seek loan workout options during the coronavirus emergency.
The Borrower Protection Program initiative announced Wednesday enables the CFPB to share complaint information about servicers and analytical tools with the FHFA using a secure electronic interface. The FHFA will make loss mitigation data, related to loan forbearance and modifications, available to the CFPB.
CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger and FHFA Director Mark Calabria said the information-sharing program would help both agencies protect borrowers during the pandemic crisis. Yet the joint press release offered little detail on how the information shared between the two agencies would be used to protect borrowers.
“Through the partnership being announced today, the Bureau will share our insights with FHFA and ensure we get their data on how mortgage servicers are working with their customers during this critical time and going forward,” Kraninger said in the jointrelease. “Help for consumers is always here at the CFPB through our complaints process. In addition to working with your lender to get an answer for you, we analyze the information to better educate consumers, provide clear rules for financial institutions, and hold companies accountable.”
Calabria said "protecting and helping homeowners during this national crisis is my top priority."
"No one should be worried about losing their home,” he said. “Borrowers are entitled to accurate information about their forbearance options. This partnership with CFPB ensures FHFA can address misconceptions stemming from consumer complaints by working with Fannie and Freddie servicers.”
As far as the taxman is concerned, home is where the heart is.
People who aren’t required to file a U.S. tax return have less than three months to alert the Internal Revenue Service if they haven’t yet received a $1,200 stimulus payment from the government, Commissioner Chuck Rettig said.
Republicans crafting their own plan for a new U.S. virus-relief bill broadly endorsed a fresh round of stimulus checks to individuals, extended supplemental jobless benefits and more money for testing while voicing doubts over President Donald Trump’s desired payroll tax cut.
Both agencies have been criticized for their response to the pandemic.
Kraninger has been faulted for failing to provide more guidance to mortgage servicers, not restricting debt collectors from contacting consumers during the crisis and for allowing voluntary reporting of pandemic-related hardships to the credit bureaus.
Meanwhile, Calabria has been blamed for the lack of a government-backed liquidity plan to aid nonbank servicers.
