The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun notifying lenders that audits are coming soon—for some within a matter of weeks.
One New York-area non-bank mortgage lender received word one week ago that three CFPB regulators will be on site to audit the company beginning next week, according to a company executive. Through a two-page notification document, the CFPB said it will remain on site for up to two weeks, the executive told RMD.
Beyond that, the details are unknown.
“It’s all new,” he told RMD. “We’re not sure what it’s going to mean, just that up to three people for up to two weeks to be on site.”
Compared with audit information from state regulators, the CFPB’s notification documents are much slimmer, he said.
Other mortgage industry sources have reported that the CFPB has sent similar requests to other lenders, but without any firm indication of what the audits will entail.
“[Non-banks] do need to be on alert that someone will be looking over their shoulder,” K&L Gates financial services attorney Larry Platt told RMD in January. “The Bureau can make it up as it goes along.”
The CFPB got its first director in January and issued guidelines for non-bank mortgage enforcement within days of the new director’s appointment. CFPB officials stated at the time they would begin that enforcement in the next one to two months.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
