Shortly before Congress left town for its annual summertime break, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, introduced S. 2641, legislation to amend the Truth in Lending Act to provide that residential mortgage loans held in portfolio would be deemed qualified mortgages for purposes of satisfying the requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule.
Mortgage lenders are getting weary of the seemingly never-ending supply of new regulations and proposals coming from the CFPB – with the latest being last month’s issuance of the bureau’s proposed rulemaking to ratchet up lender reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Lenders of all size are concerned that the proposal goes beyond what is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and means increased compliance costs that will be passed onto consumers. And representatives of smaller institutions fear they will once again be set at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis larger lenders. Additionally, consumer data privacy considerations have emerged as another concern. The bureau, for its part, pitched the proposal as a way to improve ...
The CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission and 15 state attorneys general, as well as other state agencies, announced a number of legal actions last month against alleged foreclosure relief scammers they accused of using deceptive marketing tactics to rip off distressed homeowners across the country. The CFPB filed three lawsuits against companies and individuals it asserted collected more than $25 million in illegal advance fees for services that falsely promised to prevent foreclosures or renegotiate troubled mortgages. The bureau is seeking compensation for victims, civil fines and injunctions against the companies and individuals it identified. One of the lawsuits was filed against Clausen & Cobb Management Company, Inc., its owners, Alfred Clausen and Joshua Cobb, and their business associate, attorney ...
The CFPB and 13 state attorneys general obtained approximately $92 million in debt relief from Colfax Capital Corp. and Culver Capital LLC, also collectively known as “Rome Finance,” for about 17,000 U.S. service members and other consumers said to be harmed by the company’s alleged predatory lending scheme. According to the government agencies, Rome Finance lured consumers with the promise of no money down and instant financing. Rome Finance then masked expensive finance charges by artificially inflating the disclosed price of the consumer goods being sold. Rome Finance also allegedly withheld information on billing statements and illegally collected on loans that were void. The CFPB said the companies offered credit to consumers purchasing computers, videogame consoles, televisions, or other products. ...
The CFPB and 25 states filed amicus briefs in a case pending before the Supreme Court of the United States, Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc., that could resolve a circuit split over the recession of a mortgage under the Truth in Lending Act. The Truth in Lending Act provides that a borrower “shall have the right to rescind the transaction until midnight of the third business day following ... the delivery of the information and rescission forms required under this section ... by notifying the creditor ... of his intention to do so.” TILA further creates a time limit for the exercise of this right, providing that the borrower’s “right of rescission shall expire three years after the date ...
In what is likely the first such case of its kind, a law firm headed up by former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, D, brought suit last month in the Eastern Division of the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio against JPMorgan Chase, alleging the lender violated the new mortgage servicing regulation promulgated by the CFPB. According to court documents, homeowner Bethanne Wasko, of Poland, OH, was always current on her mortgage until she sought a loan modification and was told by Chase that she would need to stop making payments in order to be eligible. Wasko did as she was told, her attorney’s filing said, but instead of offering her the modification she sought, the bank filed for foreclosure. ...
The American Bankers Association told the CFPB its members are working hard to refine their implementation of the bureau’s new mortgage servicing rules, but have bumped into a handful of questions and concerns they’d like the agency to address via regulatory guidance or amendment. The first issue involved rolling delinquencies and the “120-day rule.” The bureau’s rule prohibits a servicer from making the first notice or filing for foreclosure unless a borrower’s mortgage loan obligation is more than 120 days delinquent. Many ABA members asked how this 120-day rule applies to “rolling delinquencies,” which occur when delinquent borrowers resume making payments on the loan without making up for past missed payments. “ABA members need regulatory certainty regarding how to apply ...
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