Insights tagged: banking brief

Recap of MBA Independent Mortgage Bankers Conference. Event demonstrated critical importance of maintaining rigorous processes to comply with increasingly complex regulations.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) recently held their Regulatory Compliance Conference 2015 in Washington DC. It featured a number of panel sessions with individuals representing a diverse range of backgrounds, including attorneys, executive level servicing professionals, and CFPB employees, all providing guidance and perspective on the regulatory issues facing the industry. There was a large emphasis on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) examinations, as well as the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, given the implementation began October 3, 2015.

The heightened complexity of vendor risk management for US banks was evident at a conference sponsored by Marcus Evans in Chicago on June 3-4. Need for resources, maintaining oversight, and how organizations are managing the process internally were all hot topics of conversation.

Few topics in finance garner as much attention – and varied opinion – as mortgage finance reform. Observers on both sides of the aisle agree that steps are needed to delimit GSE involvement and attendant taxpayer exposure, but that consensus usually disappears when debate turns to specific measures for reform.

As has been anticipated since the end of the Great Recession, a wave of bank consolidation is very much in formation and could swell to significant levels later in 2015. On its own merit, the increase in average pricing on Q1 2015 deals to a level of just over 150% of book value strongly indicates a more robust mergers and acquisition market for banks.