On April 14, 2016, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced two changes concerning its policies affecting delinquent mortgage loans: first, it announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer mortgage principal reductions to certain borrowers who are seriously delinquent and underwater, and second, it announced new enhancements to…
On April 8, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) officially announced a $1.2 billion settlement with a national bank and one of its executives relating to the bank’s participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Direct Endorsement Lender Program. As part of the settlement agreement, the bank acknowledged that between the period of May…
On April 1, 2016, the California Attorney General announced that it filed suit against a prominent investment bank for alleged “misrepresentations about complex investments such as residential mortgage-backed securities, in which large pools of home loans were packaged together and sold to investors.” The eight-count complaint, which was filed in…
In a March 23, 2016 proposal titled “A More Promising Road to GSE Reform“, several prominent policy commentators recently outlined their suggested plan for reforming the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), which—according to these analysts—are “two enormously important yet flawed institutions”…
On March 15, 2016, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced final changes to its loan-level certification form, 92900-A HUD/VA Addendum to the Uniform Residential Loan Application. The announcement represents important and highly-anticipated changes to the FHA’s required certification. The FHA’s loan-level certification form, which the lender completes for every loan…
On March 16, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), and Acting Inspector General for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) announced that the government settled a False Claims Act lawsuit against a New York-based…
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it reached an agreement with a regional bank over a disparate treatment fair housing claim. HUD alleged that the bank engaged in racially discriminatory redlining by lending less in the majority-minority neighborhood of the East Side of Kansas City, Missouri….
Do borrowers have standing to challenge a non-judicial foreclosure on the ground of alleged defects in an assignment from the original lender to a successor? This is a question that has divided courts, both in California and across the country. See, e.g., Glaski v. Bank of Am., 218 Cal. App….
On February 18, the Massachusetts Attorney General (“AG”) announced a $4 million settlement with a national mortgage lender and servicer, resolving allegations that the lender received kickbacks for force-placed insurance policies. The AG alleged that, prior to June 1, 2012, the lender received compensation and other kickbacks tied to (already high) force-placed insurance…
On February 9, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (“OCC”) announced that it has terminated mortgage servicing-related consent orders against two national banks because the banks now comply with the orders. In terminating the consent orders, the OCC assessed a $10 million civil money penalty against the first bank and a $3.4 million civil money penalty against the…
On January 28, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its monthly consumer complaint snapshot, identifying the most recent trends in consumer complaints about various financial products and services. CFPB Monthly Complaint Rep., Jan. 2016, at 1. The report analyzes trends by complaint volume by product, state, and company. Id. at 3-10….
On February 5, 2016, the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 49 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia’s attorney general announced a $470 million settlement with a national bank to address alleged mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses. …
On February 3, 2016, a national bank announced in its SEC filing that it has reached a $1.2 billion agreement in principle with the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and…
On January 5, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (“OCC”) announced that it had terminated consent orders against two national banks. In doing so, the OCC assessed civil money penalties against the banks relating to previous violations of the existing consent orders. The OCC announced that it was terminating…
On November 23, 2015, the Attorney General’s Office for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts reached a settlement agreement with a Massachusetts force-place-insurance company relating to allegations that it required homeowners to purchase unnecessary or overpriced force-placed insurance policies. Force-placed insurance is a form of homeowner’s insurance that may be acquired by a lender or mortgage…
On November 19, 2015, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it had reached a settlement with a national mortgage company over allegations the company overcharged customers for mortgage settlement services. The company allegedly charged consumers a $200 settlement service fee in connection with mortgage loans. The fee…
On November 19, 2015, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that it had ordered a regional mortgage company to pay a $1 million fine and surrender its mortgage license over allegations the firm’s senior managers cheated on continuing education exams. Under New York law, all mortgage originators must…
A month has passed since the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (“TRID” or “Know Before You Owe”) requirements went into effect on October 3, 2015, and while the transition has not been completely smooth, it has gone better than many expected. Below is a recap of some of the issues that…
On November 5, 2015, the DOJ’s U.S. Trustee Program announced that it entered into a nationwide settlement agreement with a national bank over allegations the bank failed to file mortgage payment change notices in bankruptcy proceedings. When a debtor has entered Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings, federal bankruptcy law requires mortgage…
On October 15, 2015, the New Jersey Attorney General announced that the New Jersey of Division of Consumer Affairs reached settlements with three companies and one individual to resolve allegations that the businesses falsely represented they were needed to help consumers obtain “surplus funds” remaining after a property foreclosure sale. “Surplus funds” are funds…