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53 » VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM MONITOR TO CHASE: YOU'RE ALMOST THERE An independent monitor reported that JPMorgan Chase is about 97 percent of the way toward fulfilling its consumer relief obligation under the $13 billion RMBS settlement reached in November 2013. e Office of Joseph A. Smith Jr., Monitor of the Chase RMBS settlement, announced that he has credited Chase with $3.88 billion in consumer relief to 165,191 borrowers through September 30, 2015. "I have credited Chase with $3.88 billion in consumer relief after an in-depth review of its consumer relief activities," Smith said. "Chase self- reported an additional $113 million in relief, which I will review and discuss in my next report." Should Smith approve the additional $113 million (to another 2,613 borrowers, through December 31, 2015) and $62.7 million (to 1,156 borrowers through March 31, 2016) reported by Chase's Internal Review Group, it would satisfy the bank's consumer relief obligation under the terms of the settlement a year and nine months early. e bank has until December 31, 2017, to provide the remaining $120 million. "We've been there for our customers from the beginning of the crisis and remain committed to supporting those who require assistance," said Peter Muriungi, head of mortgage servicing at Chase. "We're pleased with the findings of today's report which speaks to our continued focus on helping our customers remain in their homes." e report released was Smith's eighth on Chase's progress toward fulfilling the terms of the settlement. Smith credited Chase with an additional $206 million in consumer relief during the third quarter of 2015, bringing the total credited up to its current level of $3.88 billion. More than half of that $3.88 billion has been in the form of modification-forgiveness/ forbearance ($2.018 billion). Approximately $874 million of the relief has come in the form of rate reduction, and about $1.17 billion has been in the form of low- to moderate-income and disaster area lending. Chase settled with the government in November 2013 for a then-record $13 billion amid claims that the bank, along with Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, sold faulty residential mortgage-backed securities to investors prior to the financial crisis. Chase was required to make $9 billion in direct payments to government agencies and five states and provide $4 billion in consumer relief under the settlement. MORE PROPOSED CFPB REFORMS CLEAR SUBCOMMITTEE A House Subcommittee has approved a bill aimed that contained proposals for major reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)'s leadership and budget. e House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee approved by a voice vote its Fiscal Year 2017 Financial Services Bill, which proposes three major changes to the Bureau. e bill proposes to increase oversight for the CFPB by: » Bringing the CFPB's funding under the annual Congressional appropriations process rather than receiving funding directly from the Federal Reserve. » Replacing the Bureau's director with a five- member bipartisan commission. » Requiring the CFPB to study the use of pre-dispute arbitration prior to issuing regulations. e Bureau recently issued a controversial proposal to ban the use of arbitration clauses in financial contracts between businesses and consumers, which would open the door for consumers to file class action lawsuits against businesses. "e job of this bill is two-fold: to make wise investments with taxpayer dollars in the programs and agencies that we need to grow our economy and enforce our laws, and to tightly hold the reins on the over-spending and overreach within federal bureaucracies," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky) said. "is bill makes great strides on all accounts—carefully investing taxpayer dollars in programs that promote opportunity, while keeping these agencies accountable to the American people." e bill approved by the General Government Appropriations Subcommittee is one of a series of bills lately aimed at reforming the CFPB or rolling back Dodd-Frank that are gaining traction. In mid-April, the House Financial Services Committee. One of them, the Taking Account of Bureaucrats' Spending (TABS) Act, aimed at controlling the Bureau's spending by establishing an annual budget; the other bill that passed in the House Financial Services Committee, would repeal Dodd-Frank's bailout fund for large, complex financial institutions. SERIOUS DELINQUENCIES ELEVATED COMPARED TO PRE-CRISIS e decline in the number of foreclosures and seriously delinquent mortgages over the last six years has been well-documented. at decline has been steady and sustained and is considered by housing market analysts and economists to be the symbol of a healing housing market, the level of serious delinquencies remains elevated compared to their early 2000s level, according to data released by the Urban Institute. e Urban Institute's May 2016 Chartbook reported that the share of residential mortgage loans either 90-plus days overdue or in active foreclosure was 3.4 percent as of the end of the fourth quarter in 2015. Although down from 4.5 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, it was up from the 2 percent level which it hovered in the six years prior to the crisis. It peaked at close to 10 percent in the second half of 2009. Urban Institute's data was consistent with the numbers reported by CoreLogic in the latest national foreclosure report, which covered through the end of March 2016. CoreLogic reported 36,000 completed foreclosures during March, which is down by 23 percent over-the- year but still way above the pre-crisis monthly average of 21,000 from 200o to 2006. "Longer term, as loans made since 2009 account for a larger share of outstanding debt, we anticipate that the serious delinquency rate will have further substantive declines," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. According to Urban Institute, the percentage of residential loans in foreclosure was 1.8 percent as of the end of the fourth quarter, compared with a rate that hovered between about 1 percent and 1.3 percent from the six year-period from 2000 to 2006. e percentage of loans 90 days delinquent was 1.7 percent as of the end of Q 4, according to Urban Institute, after staying at or near 1 percent in the six years pre-crisis.

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