Twist & Shout!

By Annalyn Censky @CNNMoney September 21, 2011: 2:35 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Federal Reserve announced 'Operation Twist' Wednesday, a widely expected stimulus move reviving a policy from the 1960's.

The policy involves selling $400 billion in short-term Treasuries in exchange for the same amount of longer-term bonds.

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While the move does not mean the Fed will pump additional money into the economy, it is designed to lower yields on long-term bonds, while keeping short-term rates little changed.

The intent is to thereby push down interest rates on everything from mortgages to business loans, giving consumers and companies an additional incentive to borrow and spend money.

"This program should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and help make broader financial conditions more accomodative" the Fed said in its official statement.

It's controversial to say the least, especially following a high-profile letter from Republicans Monday, urging the central bank not to intervene in the economy more than it already has.

And even within the Fed, three regional bank presidents, Richard Fisher of Dallas, Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, dissented against the decision.

Interest rates have already been at record lows since 2008, and that has yet to entice consumers to take out loans.

"This is not a situation where people are saying, 'gee, I really want to buy that house but interest rates are too high'," said Frank Sorrentino, CEO of North Jersey Community Bank. "Rates are already at historic lows and over the last six to nine months, we have not seen loan demand go up."

While the launch of Operation Twist was widely expected by both markets and economists, experts still question its effectiveness.

"I don't think it really solves the fundamental problems facing the economy, which are the bad shape of the housing market and that people still have very high debt levels," said Dean Croushore, chair of the economics department at the University of Richmond and former vice-president of the Philadelphia Fed.

Named after the popular 1960's dance, the Twist, the policy was first undertaken as a combined effort by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department under the Kennedy administration in 1961.

But economists today largely view the policy as a failure, arguing that it may have been too small to have a significant impact.

Totaling $8.8 billion, the original Operation Twist was roughly equal to 1.7% of the total U.S. economy in the early 1960's.

"It changed rates maybe 0.1% to 0.2% at the time, but that wasn't enough to get much happening in the economy," Croushore said. "That's the only time we've tried it before, and we lack a good amount of empirical data to figure out how much difference a bigger amount might make."

The second rendition, at $400 billion, is equivalent to roughly 2.7% of today's gross domestic product.

The launch of Operation Twist follows the Fed's sixth policymaking meeting of the year, which due to weakness in the economy, was rescheduled to last two days instead of the original one.

Speaking in August, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the meeting had to be extended "to allow a fuller discussion" of what the Fed should do to respond to "disappointing" growth.

At the Fed's last official meeting in August, the policymaking committee decided to keep interest rates low until 2013 -- a move that was widely interpreted as a sign that the central bank is not expecting the economy to improve much for at least another two years.

On Wednesday, the Fed reiterated its gloomy outlook, saying "economic growth remains slow."

Wells Fargo Faces $85 Million Penalty

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday issued a consent cease and desist order and assessed an $85 million civil money penalty against Wells Fargo & Company of San Francisco, a registered bank holding company, and Wells Fargo Financial, Inc., of Des Moines. The order addresses allegations that Wells Fargo Financial employees steered potential prime borrowers into more costly subprime loans and separately falsified income information in mortgage applications. In addition to the civil money penalty, the order requires that Wells Fargo compensate affected borrowers.
 
The $85 million civil money penalty is the largest the Board has assessed in a consumer-protection enforcement action and is the first formal enforcement action taken by a federal bank regulatory agency to address alleged steering of borrowers into high-cost, subprime loans.

Wells Fargo Financial--a once-active, non-bank subsidiary of Wells Fargo--made subprime loans that primarily refinanced existing home mortgages in which borrowers received additional money from the loan proceeds in so-called cash-out refinancing loans. The order addresses allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel steered borrowers who were potentially eligible for prime interest rate loans into loans at higher, subprime interest rates, resulting in greater costs to borrowers. The order also addresses separate allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel falsified information about borrowers' incomes to make it appear that the borrowers qualified for loans when they would not have qualified based on their actual incomes.

These practices were allegedly fostered by Wells Fargo Financial's incentive compensation and sales quota programs and the lack of adequate controls to manage the risks resulting from these programs. These deficiencies allegedly constitute unsafe and unsound banking practices and unfair or deceptive acts or practices that are prohibited by the Federal Trade Commission Act and similar state laws. In agreeing to the order, Wells Fargo did not admit any wrongdoing. The order requires Wells Fargo to compensate borrowers affected by these practices. To identify prime-eligible borrowers with cash-out refinancing loans who were subject to improper steering, Wells Fargo is required to reevaluate the qualifications of all borrowers who took out a subprime, cash-out refinancing loan between January 2006 and June 2008 to account for certain specific steering techniques. To identify Wells Fargo Financial borrowers whose income information was falsified without their knowledge, Wells Fargo is required to set up a procedure for potentially affected borrowers to show that their actual income at the time did not qualify them for the loans they were granted. Wells Fargo is required to provide notice of this procedure to all borrowers who obtained cash-out refinancing loans between January 2004 and June 2008 at a Wells Fargo Financial office where there is evidence that sales personnel at that office altered or falsified borrowers' income information.

These compensation plans must be approved by the Federal Reserve. An independent, third-party administrator will review determinations about the eligibility of individual borrowers for compensation and the amounts of compensation provided. The Federal Reserve will also monitor compliance with the approved plans. Failure to comply with the plans will constitute a breach of the cease and desist order.

The amount of compensation provided to individual borrowers will depend on a number of factors, including differences between what borrowers paid and what they should have paid in terms of origination points, interest payments, fees, and penalties. Until specific determinations of harm to individual borrowers are made, it is difficult to determine the total amount of compensation provided to borrowers. Based on preliminary estimates, the amount of compensation that each eligible borrower will receive ranges between $1,000 and $20,000, but some eligible borrowers may receive less than $1,000 and others may receive more than $20,000. The number of borrowers who may receive compensation under both plans is estimated to be between 3,700 and possibly more than 10,000.

Further information for borrowers may be found at www.wellsfargo.com/mortgage .

In addition to the monetary components of the settlement, Wells Fargo is required to improve oversight of its anti-fraud and compliance programs and incentive compensation and performance management policies for personnel who sell and underwrite home mortgage loans. The Board also has issued consent orders against 16 former Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel prohibiting them from becoming employed in the banking industry. The Board has also issued a consent cease and desist order against another former Wells Fargo Financial sales person prohibiting future improper conduct.

Federal Reserve Takes Action Against 10 Banks

Release Date: April 13, 2011

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced formal enforcement actions requiring 10 banking organizations to address a pattern of misconduct and negligence related to deficient practices in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing. These deficiencies represent significant and pervasive compliance failures and unsafe and unsound practices at these institutions.

The Board is taking these actions to ensure that firms under its jurisdiction promptly initiate steps to establish mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processes that treat customers fairly, are fully compliant with all applicable law, and are safe and sound.

The 10 banking organizations are: Bank of America Corporation; Citigroup Inc.; Ally Financial Inc.; HSBC North America Holdings, Inc.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; MetLife, Inc.; The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; SunTrust Banks, Inc.; U.S. Bancorp; and Wells Fargo & Company. Collectively, these organizations represent 65 percent of the servicing industry, or nearly $6.8 trillion in mortgage balances. All 10 actions require the parent holding companies to improve holding company oversight of residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing conducted by bank and nonbank subsidiaries.

In addition, the enforcement actions order the banking organizations that have servicing entities regulated by the Federal Reserve (Ally Financial, SunTrust, and HSBC) to promptly correct the many deficiencies in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing. Those deficiencies were identified by examiners during reviews conducted from November 2010 to January 2011.

The Federal Reserve believes monetary sanctions in these cases are appropriate and plans to announce monetary penalties. These monetary penalties will be in addition to the corrective actions that the banking organizations are expected to take pursuant to the enforcement actions.

The enforcement actions complement the actions under consideration by the federal and state regulatory and law enforcement agencies, and do not preclude those agencies from taking additional enforcement action. The Federal Reserve continues to work with other federal and state authorities to resolve these matters.

The actions taken Wednesday require each servicer to take a number of actions, including to make significant revisions to certain residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing practices. Each servicer must, among other things, submit plans acceptable to the Federal Reserve that:

•strengthen coordination of communications with borrowers by providing borrowers the name of the person at the servicer who is their primary point of contact;
•ensure that foreclosures are not pursued once a mortgage has been approved for modification, unless repayments under the modified loan are not made;
•establish robust controls and oversight over the activities of third-party vendors that provide to the servicers various residential mortgage loan servicing, loss mitigation, or foreclosure-related support, including local counsel in foreclosure or bankruptcy proceedings;
•provide remediation to borrowers who suffered financial injury as a result of wrongful foreclosures or other deficiencies identified in a review of the foreclosure process; and
•strengthen programs to ensure compliance with state and federal laws regarding servicing, generally, and foreclosures, in particular.
The Federal Reserve will closely monitor progress at the firms in addressing these matters and will take additional enforcement actions as needed.

In addition to the actions against the banking organizations, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced formal enforcement actions against Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), a domestic provider of default-management services and other services related to foreclosures, and against MERSCORP, Inc. (MERS), which provides services related to tracking and registering residential mortgage ownership and servicing, acts as mortgagee of record on behalf of lenders and servicers, and initiates foreclosure actions. These actions address significant compliance failures and unsafe and unsound practices at LPS and its subsidiaries, and at MERS and its subsidiary. The action requires LPS to address deficient practices related primarily to the document execution services that LPS, through its subsidiaries DocX, LLC, and LPS Default Solutions, Inc., provided to servicers in connection with foreclosures. MERS is required to address significant weaknesses in, among other things, oversight, management supervision, and corporate governance. The LPS action is being taken jointly with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of Thrift Supervision, while the MERS action is being taken jointly with those agencies and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Federal Reserve Board based its enforcement actions on the findings of the interagency reviews of the major mortgage servicers, LPS, and MERS. A summary of the findings from the reviews of the mortgage servicers is available in the Interagency Review of Foreclosure Policies and Practices, which is simultaneously being released by the Federal Reserve Board and the other agencies.

New Fed Rule May Lower Costs for Borrowers

A new Federal Reserve rule that takes effect April 1 is expected to lead to lower costs for borrowers, but some experts say it’s going to hurt the mortgage industry.

Under the new rule, borrowers who get their mortgages through brokers likely will pay less for services and brokers will be required to offer borrowers the lowest possible interest rate and fees that they qualify for. Most banks and other direct lenders, including some mortgage companies that operate like banks, are exempt from the rule.

The new Federal Reserve rule--the “Loan Originator Compensation amendment to Regulation Z”--is to help prevent borrowers from being steered into high-cost or risky loans.

Mortgage brokers used to earn more money on a loan the higher the interest rate and points. But the new rule covers how a loan originator is paid, setting a fixed commission and no longer tying the amount to the loan terms.

Some in the mortgage industry aren’t happy with the new rule, saying it makes mortgage brokers less competitive against the big banks.

“I will now get paid the same amount to process a plain-vanilla loan as I will a complex loan of equal size that requires more work,” says Mark Yecies, an owner of SunQuest Funding, a mortgage broker and lender in Cranford, N.J.

Officials with the National Association of Mortgage Brokers also have expressed concerns, saying the rule would likely put a lot of independent brokers out of business.

Source: “New Fed Rule for Mortgage Brokers,” The New York Times (Feb. 17, 2011)

New Credit Card Rules Protect Borrowers

From the Federal Reserve

More new rules from the Federal Reserve mean more new credit card protections for you. Here are some key changes you should expect from your credit card company beginning on August 22, 2010:

Reasonable penalty fees

Let's say you are late making your minimum payment.

Today: Your late payment fee may be as high as $39, and you likely pay the same fee whether you are late with a $20 minimum payment or a $100 minimum payment.

Under the new rules: Your credit card company cannot charge you a fee of more than $25 unless:

◦One of your last six payments was late, in which case your fee may be up to $35; or
◦Your credit card company can show that the costs it incurs as a result of late payments justify a higher fee.

In addition, your credit card company cannot charge a late payment fee that is greater than your minimum payment. So, if your minimum payment is $20, your late payment fee can't be more than $20. Similarly, if you exceed your credit limit by $5, you can't be charged an over-the-limit fee of more than $5.

Additional fee protections

No inactivity fees. Your credit card company can't charge you inactivity fees, such as fees for not using your card.

One-fee limit. Your credit card company can't charge you more than one fee for a single event or transaction that violates your cardholder agreement. For example, you cannot be charged more than one fee for a single late payment.

Explanation of rate increase

If your credit card company increases your card's Annual Percentage Rate (APR), it must tell you why.

Re-evaluation of recent rate increases

Today: Your credit card company can increase your card's APR with no obligation to re-evaluate your rate increase.

Under the new rules: If your credit card company increases your APR, it must re-evaluate that rate increase every six months. If appropriate, it must reduce your rate within 45 days after completing the evaluation.

This set of rules is the latest in a series of regulations that implement the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (the Credit Card Act). For information on protections under the Federal Reserve's other credit card rules, read What You Need to Know: New Credit Card Rules Effective Feb. 22.