What if your client called the CFPB about a servicing issue, or any issue, and no one answered? Things are changing, but for a thorough write up on the current situation, check out Debra Gaveglio & Donna Schmidt’s “Harmonizing Regulatory Compliance and Industry Perspectives: Leveraging Consumer Protection and Mortgage Servicing Loss Mitigation.” At its peak, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau had about 1,700 staff. Talk in recent months of a reduction in force of 1,500 takes the number down to about 200, with authorities saying the focus of those 200 will be on “actual harm done to consumers.” It was originally envisioned that the CFPB would see harm, create a solution, and then plan it out using industry consensus. Depending on who has been in charge of the CFPB, this may or may not have happened. In fact, the CFPB has followed politics in swinging from one extreme to another, not really helping borrowers or reducing lender’s compliance costs. It is rumored, with anecdotal tales, that many CFPB employees have already gone to work at the state level, which is interesting in that the states regularly come to the CFPB for interpretations of regulations. What if Texas or California or Florida have a question about the Ability to Repay verbiage, call the CFPB, and there is no one there to pick up the phone? (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week is sponsored by nCino, makers of the nCino Mortgage Suite for the modern mortgage lender. nCino Mortgage Suite’s core products unite the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process. Hear an interview with Friday Harbor’s Theo Ellis and Jesse Collins on raising funds for mortgage technology in the current climate.)