On June 7, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Consent Order against mortgage servicer Fay Servicing, LLC (Fay), requiring Fay Servicing to pay $1.15 million to borrowers and to cease activities that the CFPB contended violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), its implementing regulation, Regulation X,…
On May 31, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its Monthly Complaint Report, this month’s complaints by consumers aged 62 and older. The CFPB drew its analysis of more than 103,100 complaints from its Complaint Database, which can be found here. The complaint report is an illuminating view…
In the first quarter of 2017, Consumer Enforcement Watch tracked 46 enforcement actions taken against consumer financial service providers. This represents a slight decrease from the 50 enforcement actions taken against consumer financial service providers in Q1 of 2016. 34 of the 2017 Q1 enforcement actions were settlements (with or…
On June 7, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with a Chicago-based mortgage servicing company, settling allegations that it failed to provide borrowers with the foreclosure protections required by law. According to the CFPB, the mortgage servicer violated federal consumer protection laws in its…
On May 30, 2017, the Honorable Josephine Staton, of the Central District of California, denied a Motion to Dismiss filed by three law firms, and their principals, in a case filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”). The CFPB sued the law firms based on their long-standing relationship with…
On May 10, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began gathering information regarding small business financing needs in an effort to encourage small businesses—especially ones owned by minorities and women. The Bureau began this process by issuing a Request for Information (RFI) seeking information from the public on a variety…
On May 4, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed the Financial CHOICE Act, H.R. 10, with a 34-to-26 vote down party lines. The legislation, co-sponsored by Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), seeks to overhaul the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, including restructuring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). LenderLaw…
On April 26, 2017, the CFPB issued a press release and its latest Supervisory Highlights, which spotlight the CFPB’s recent enforcement efforts in the areas of mortgage loan origination, mortgage loan servicing, and student loan servicing. The Supervisory Highlights reflect what the CFPB sees as common problems in each area,…
On April 27, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced the filing of a suit against four online lenders alleging that the lenders illegally collected debts on invalid loans. The complaint alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531(a), 5536(a), and 5564(a), and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA),…
On April 26, 2017, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a consent order with an Ohio-based auto lender that allegedly violated a prior CFPB consent order by failing to properly return $1 million in refunds and credits to its customers. According to the CFPB, the auto lender specializes in auto loans to servicemembers. Under…
On April 21, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision denying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) petition to investigate a college accreditation organization. The Court limited its holding to the particular Civil Investigative Demand (CID), finding that the Notification of Purpose within…
On April 5, 2017, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee to present the CFPB’s semi-annual report, which is available here. The hearing was unsurprisingly divisive among members of Congress. Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) set the tone during his opening statement,…
On April 13, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued proposed amendments to clarify certain requirements of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). HMDA requires that financial institutions collect and report certain information regarding their mortgage lending activities. The information that financial institutions are required to collect and report includes…
On April 17, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against an Ohio-based debt collection law firm, alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). The…
On March 28, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released Volume 21 of its Monthly Complaint Report (the “Report”). The purpose of the Report is, in part, to educate consumers and financial institutions on major consumer issues—which it does by providing a high-level analysis of trends in consumer complaints, focusing on one or two…
The five-year anniversary of some of the major financial regulations passed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is coming up in January 2018, meaning that they will soon undergo a review to check on their effectiveness. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFPB to review its rules five years after their effective date to…
On March 23, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a California-based credit reporting agency (CRA) and its subsidiaries, resolving allegations that the CRA deceived consumers by misrepresenting that the credit score reports that it marketed to consumers were used by lenders in determining a consumer’s credit worthiness….
On March 17, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amicus brief in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, No. 15-1177 (D.C. Cir.), in which it argued that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) single director structure is unconstitutional and that President Trump should have the power to remove the CFPB’s director…
On March 15, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) entered into a consent order with national nonbank mortgage lender that requires the lender to pay a $1.75 million civil monetary penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The CFPB alleged that the mortgage lender violated HMDA, 12 U.S.C. § 2803,…
On February 28, 2017, the CFPB issued its monthly complaint report spotlighting credit reporting complaints (the Spotlight). Two days later, the Bureau issued a Special Edition of its Supervisory Highlights Report, which also focused on credit reporting (the Report), and Director Cordray delivered prepared remarks on the topic the same day. …