On January 26, 2023, the Massachusetts Division of Banks (DOB) entered into a consent order with a California-based mortgage lender. According to the DOB, the company, which was licensed as a mortgage lender in Massachusetts, had allowed a separate company to use its government issued mortgage license number, which could mislead consumers into…
On April 3, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a notice to appeal a district court’s decision to dismiss its complaint against Townstone Finance, Inc. (Townstone), a nonbank mortgage lender, and its owner Barry Sturner, for allegedly violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). Relying on the language…
On February 27, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a mortgage lender, resolving allegations that the lender engaged in “a series of repeat offenses,” including violating a 2015 order prohibiting the lender from engaging in allegedly deceptive advertising. According to the CFPB, the lender sent advertisements to…
On February 3, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Defendants Townstone Financial, Inc., a mortgage broker/lender, and Barry Sturner’s, Townstone’s owner, motion to dismiss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) redlining complaint brought under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), ECOA’s…
On December 22, 2022, the Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) announced a settlement with a South Carolina mortgage servicing company to resolve allegations that the company violated state mortgage servicing and debt collection laws. After an investigation, the AG alleged that the servicer did not take “reasonable steps” to help borrowers avoid foreclosures…
On December 20, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a large national bank to resolve alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s (CFPA) prohibition of unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices, 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531 and 5536. According to the…
On November 17, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it entered into a consent order with a California-based mortgage servicer concerning its purported failure to provide certain borrowers forbearances and protections from credit reporting, as required under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). According to the CFPB, the servicer’s…
On September 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it reached a settlement with a Memphis-based bank to resolve alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601–3619, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691–1691f, and its implementing Regulation B, 12 C.F.R. §…
On July 27, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they reached a settlement with a nonbank residential mortgage lender to resolve allegations of race-based lending discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619; the Equal Credit Opportunity Act…
On June 22, 2022, the USAO for the Eastern District of Washington announced that it had reached a settlement with a California-based mortgage lender for fraudulent originations of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) backed loans. The investigation began as a qui tam action filed under seal in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern…
On June 2, 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it reached a settlement agreement with a non-bank residential mortgage lender to resolve allegations of race-based lending discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq. The settlement arose from a complaint filed with a fair…
On May 26, 2022, the North Carolina Attorney General (NC AG) announced that it obtained a default judgment against a California-based debt settlement business, and its proprietor. The lawsuit, filed on June 25, 2021 in the North Carolina Superior Court for Wake County, alleged that the entity violated North Carolina’s Debt Adjusting Act, N.C. Gen. Stat….
The CFPB, federal banking agencies, and state regulators are returning to pre-pandemic norms with respect to enforcement and supervision of the mortgage servicing industry. On November 10, 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its first in-depth report analyzing consumer complaint submission patterns by demographic characteristics. The CFPB’s findings were based on nearly 1 million consumer complaints submitted to the CFPB between 2018 and 2020. The CFPB’s report classified complaints by matching the relevant consumers to U.S….
On October 8, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced the filing of a complaint and proposed consent order against a reverse mortgage lender in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In the complaint, the CFPB alleged the lender engaged in deceptive advertising practices in violation of the Consumer Financial…
On September 9, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that it issued a $250 million civil money penalty against a national bank for alleged deficiencies in the bank’s home lending loss mitigation program, and for purportedly failing to meet its obligations under a 2018 consent order…
On August 24, 2021, the Virginia Attorney General (“Virginia AG”) announced that it entered into settlement with a Virginia-based lender and its managing member over allegations that the lender violated §§ 6.2-303 and 6.2-1501(A) of Virginia’s consumer finance statute. The settlement was filed as a consent judgment in the Circuit Court for the…
On August 30, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, together with Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), it reached a settlement with a bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in lender discrimination in the Houston, Texas area. In 2017, the OCC initiated a fair lending examination…
On June 28, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized amendments to the implementing regulation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Regulation X, which would establish temporary protections for mortgage borrowers as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and various Federal and State…
On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. The enactment of the new Federal holiday was an historic and welcome national event. Yet, the legislation making June 19 a Federal holiday—observed this year by the Federal government on Friday, June 18—was passed swiftly…