March 21, 2018


In This Issue:

  • Fidelity National to Acquire Stewart
  • FinCEN Renews Orders for Bexar County Through Sept. 16
  • Bipartisan Push Begins in Congress to Change CFPB Leadership to Commission
  • Senate Passes Rollback of Banking Rules Enacted After Financial Crisis
  • House Will Not Pass Current Senate Bill Easing Bank Rules: Hensarling
     

Fidelity National to Acquire Stewart

TLTA | March 19, 2018
 As TLTA reported in Breaking News on March 19, Fidelity National Financial, Inc. and Stewart Information Services Corporation have announced that Fidelity will acquire Stewart through a merger agreement with an equity value of approximately $1.2 billion. The closing of the transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including Stewart stockholder approval, federal and state regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Closing is expected in the first or second quarter of 2019.
 
Read the Fidelity Announcement »
Read the Stewart Announcement »

FinCEN Renews Orders for Bexar County Through Sept. 16

TLTA | March 20, 2018
 While we haven't received anything official, TLTA has gotten word that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) first issued in July 2016 and renewed in February and September 2017 has been renewed again for 180 days. It will be in effect March 21 through Sept. 16, 2018. This order requires title insurers and their agents to identify the names of individuals involved in corporations, LLCs and other legal entities that make all-cash purchases for high-end residential real estate in Bexar County. The threshold in Bexar County is cash deals purchased by corporate entities above $500,000.

CFPB NEWS: Bipartisan Push Begins in Congress to Change CFPB Leadership to Commission

HousingWire | March 14, 2018
 While some congressional Democrats and Republicans are fighting over who’s supposed to be serving as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau right now, a handful of their colleagues want to do away with the bureau’s single director structure altogether.

Last week, a bipartisan group of two Republicans and two Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a bill that would replace the single director of the CFPB with a bipartisan commission.
 
The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Florida, is called the Financial Product Safety Commission Act of 2018.
 
ALTA issued a statement in support of the bill saying, "Converting the CFPB into a bipartisan commission would make the agency like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board and the National Credit Union Administration."
 
Read More » 

Senate Passes Rollback of Banking Rules Enacted After Financial Crisis 

TRID Simultaneous Issue Fix Not Included

The Washington Post | March 14, 2018
 The Senate on Wednesday, March 14 passed the biggest loosening of financial regulations since the economic crisis a decade ago, delivering wide bipartisan support for weakening banking rules despite bitter divisions among Democrats.
 
The bill, which passed 67 votes to 31, would free more than two dozen banks from the toughest regulatory scrutiny put in place after the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite President Trump’s promise to do a “big number” on the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the new measure leaves key aspects of the earlier law in place. Nonetheless, it amounts to a significant rollback of banking rules aimed at protecting taxpayers from another financial crisis and future bailouts.

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House Will Not Pass Current Senate Bill Easing Bank Rules: Hensarling

Reuters | March 15, 2018
 The U.S. House of Representatives will not approve a bill easing bank rules passed by the Senate without additional provisions that would further relax regulations introduced after the 2007-2009 financial crisis, a leading lawmaker said on Thursday. The comments by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, inject new uncertainty into Congress’ first bipartisan attempt to rewrite the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. During a briefing on Thursday, Hensarling told reporters the lower chamber is insisting on negotiations in an effort to add roughly 30 measures to the bill the Senate passed Wednesday.
 
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