PayThink

Janet Yellen shouldn't have needed anyone's help to be nominated to lead the Fed. Her tortuous path underscores the importance of rallying around qualified women candidates for industry leadership positions.

The distinguished economist will have to make monetary policy a priority during her tenure as Fed chair. But Yellen won’t forget about her financial regulatory role and is likely to support stricter capital requirements along with enhanced nonbank supervision.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's recent proposal regarding the definition of "qualified mortgages" differs from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's QM rule. These key differences are causing lenders to be overwhelmed with how to implement the agency's plan.

Hopefully, examiners will respect good-faith efforts by banks and third-party processors to verify that a merchant’s business is legal – rather than expect financial institutions to guarantee how courts will decide.

According to an essay by Raymond Natter, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd-Frank Act may cut off payments to conflict-torn areas.

A government guarantee must be accompanied by an obligation to responsibly serve creditworthy borrowers. Without that mechanism, many creditworthy taxpayers will be left with no access.

A well-structured mortgage business will generate strong revenues that can help offset declines elsewhere, regulatory challenges and interest rate volatility notwithstanding.

Selecting a property, hiring an architect, building designers, interiors, vendors and technology providers all encompass a project that amounts to a two-year business interruption. It does nothing to attract a client base.

Placing the Federal Housing Administration inside the proposed Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. would provide singular oversight for balancing the post-GSE mortgage market and a fully federal guaranteed market for specified market segments.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may gain an upper-hand in the mortgage sphere because of regulators' plan to unite two separate mortgage standards mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.