An official from the CFPB confirmed late last week the agency is looking into the massive data breach at Equifax, widely seen as the most significant, and potentially most damaging, so far in the age of the Internet. A spokesman for the bureau told this newsletter, “The CFPB has authority over the consumer reporting industry, including supervisory and enforcement authority. The CFPB is authorized to take enforcement action against institutions engaged in unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, or that otherwise violate federal consumer financial laws. We are looking into the data breach and Equifax’s response, but cannot comment further at this time.” However, it’s not just the occurrence of the breach that bothers the consumer regulator. As part ...
CFPB Director Richard Cordray is still on the job, but did take a step toward throwing his hat into the ring for the race for the Ohio governor’s mansion, delivering remarks at the Labor Day Picnic of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO. Cordray, sounding like a political candidate, according to those in attendance, briefly extolled all the work the bureau has done on behalf of consumers, including the mortgage reforms that have forced so much change upon lenders. The director noted, “So far, our enforcement work has led to about $12 billion in relief to 30 million people who were cheated or mistreated, and who deserve to get things fixed and get their money back.” His remarks also harkened back to his ...
The CFPB’s final rule banning arbitration agreements, as well as pending rulemakings on payday and small-dollar lending and on debt collection practices, may live or die on the decision of Director Richard Cordray to exit his term before it expires in July. That prospect could be motivating him to linger in his current gig as opposed to resigning right now to enter the race for Ohio’s governorship, according to an analysis of the current lay of the land at the bureau from a former senior official at the agency. Former CFPB Assistant Director and Deputy General Counsel Quyen Truong, now a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in DC, noted that it is still unclear whether Republicans in the ...
Members of Congress wasted no time getting to work on the CFPB when they returned to the nation’s capital last week after the Labor Day holiday. A subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to consider a few legislative proposals to foster a more efficient federal financial regulatory regime, including a soon-to-be introduced TRID Improvement Act. Slated to be introduced by Rep. French Hill, R-AR, the TRID Improvement Act of 2017 would amend the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act to expand the period in which a creditor is allowed to cure a good-faith violation on a loan estimate or closing disclosure from 60 to 210 days after consummation. The bill also ...
The biggest mortgage lenders and the national industry trade groups have yet to formally submit comments to the CFPB regarding the bureau’s proposal that would close the so-called black hole associated with the agency’s integrated disclosure rule. But smaller players aren’t waiting around for the big dogs to weigh in and are expressing their support for the agency’s proposed solution. Monica Montgomery, head of mortgage compliance for Dubuque Bank & Trust, said she fully supports removing the four-business-day limit for providing closing disclosures for purposes of resetting tolerances and determining if an estimated closing cost was disclosed in good faith. “There are many circumstances where a closing is delayed beyond the control of the creditor after a CD had been ...
A complaint filed in late 2015 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in an attempt to initiate a class-action case against PHH Corp. and Realogy Holdings Corp. and some of their subsidiaries and affiliates has been brought to an end, after the defendants agreed to pay $17 million to resolve the dispute. PHH, Realogy and the other industry participants were accused of violating Section 8(a) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act by allegedly “paying and receiving kickbacks, referral fees, or other things of value in connection with the referral of title insurance and other settlement services to Title Resource Group and its affiliates.” They also were accused of running PHH Home Loans as an improper ...
Ocwen Financial Corp. and Ocwen Loan Servicing recently agreed to pay a $1 million fine to resolve an issue of force-placed insurance (FPI) under the national mortgage settlement that was reached in 2014.At issue was the company’s performance as loan servicer as measured against one particular metric, metric 29, the purpose of which is to test whether Ocwen complied with the servicing standards regarding the timeliness of terminating FPI and refunding premiums to affected borrowers. Under the settlement, Ocwen must terminate FPI within 15 days of obtaining proof that a borrower has an existing insurance policy. As it turned out, Ocwen exceeded the mandated error threshold of 5 percent for Metric 29 during the first quarter of 2017, according ...
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