ALTA Ready to Work With New CFPB Director on Issues Impacting Members
October 5, 2021
The U.S. Senate voted 50-48 on Sept. 30 to confirm Federal Trade Commission official Rohit Chopra as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
ALTA congratulated Chopra on his confirmation and looks forward to working with him and the bureau’s staff to help provide positive and compliant real estate settlement experiences for consumers. ALTA is ready to serve as a resource on important issues, such as wire transfer fraud, third-party oversight and mortgage disclosures.
Chopra has said his focus would be “unlawful and avoidable foreclosures” in the housing market and “systemic inequities faced by families of color” in the mortgage market.
In regard to mortgage disclosures, ALTA has consistently said the CFPB’s rule for the disclosure of title insurance fees does not provide consumers with clear information about their title insurance costs.
“This problem of not allowing title insurance companies to disclose available discounts for lenders title insurance is exacerbated in states where it is common for the seller to pay for all or a portion of the buyer’s title insurance costs,” said ALTA CEO Diane Tomb. “In these states, the CFPB’s mandated formula not only leads to an incorrect disclosure of the cost of title insurance but confusion over how much the seller is obligated to pay.
Over 40 percent of American homebuyers felt taken advantage of or confused by the calculation of title insurance fees under the CFPB’s method.
Another area of concern involves consumer financial data. ALTA has reminded the CFPB that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) already limits how financial institutions—including title and settlement services companies—share and use customers’ personal information. There are several things the CFPB should consider when evaluating access and use of data.
“One key area is in the transparency and disclosure regarding who has access to the consumer data, the use of any intermediaries or data access aggregators to process data, how the data is used and stored, control over whether their data is sold and whether the consumer can opt out of data collection or sharing practices,” Tomb said.
Additionally, ALTA is hopeful the CFPB continues its recent trend of providing more formal rulemaking for financial institutions to rely on and less regulation by enforcement.
“Businesses regulated by the bureau should have the right to know the rules before any enforcement actions commence,” Tomb said.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].