At March 31, PIMCO did not even rank among the top institutional holders of PHH Corp. As one analyst quipped: "Maybe they like the valuation."

It remains unclear why Rick Thompson departed Envoy Mortgage as its CEO.

How much stock to insiders at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac actually own?

In its largest settlement under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act against a company that is not a mortgage insurer, the CFPB ordered Alabama real estate company RealtySouth to pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle claims it gave inadequate disclosures of its relationship with an affiliated title insurance company. The practices identified by the CFPB’s investigation illegally benefited TitleSouth, an affiliated company owned by the same holding company that owns RealtySouth, according to the bureau, and left consumers unaware of their rights to choose service providers during the home-buying process. “RealtySouth’s preprinted form purchase contracts, which its agents provided to homebuyers preparing to make an offer on a home, either explicitly directed...

Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman, appeared before the Senate Budget Committee last week and indicated the bureau remains intent on holding student loan servicers to account for their treatment of struggling borrowers. “Like many of the improper and unnecessary foreclosures experienced by many homeowners, I am concerned that inadequate servicing has contributed to America’s growing student loan default problem, now topping 7 million Americans in default on over $100 billion in balances,” Chopra said. “To ensure that we do not see a repeat of the breakdowns and chaos in the mortgage servicing market, it will be...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, is among those leading a legislative push by House and Senate Democrats to protect college students from what they see as unfair banking practices involving campus-sponsored financial products. The legislation would extensively rely upon the CFPB to help accomplish lawmakers’ objectives in this regard. The House bill, entitled the Curbing Abusive Marketing Practices with University Student Debit Cards Act (otherwise known as the CAMPUS Debit Cards Act), would end...

A handful of Democrat Senators are urging CFPB Director Richard Cordray to bring an end to what they consider to be predatory small-dollar storefront and online payday lending. “Sadly, the evidence shows that these loans trap consumers in a cycle of debt in which consumers end up owing more than the initial loan amount, an appalling practice that exploits the financial hardship of hard working families and exhibits a deeply flawed business model that does not consider borrowers’ ability to repay the loan,” the senators said in a letter to the director. “The CFPB was established...

As last month drew to a close, the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee decided to postpone a May 29 markup of a number of pending bills, including six related to the CFPB, after the death of the mother of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, the ranking member of the committee. The markup has been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 10, the committee announced late last week. Among the CFPB-related bills pending before the committee is...

Organizations representing different segments of the mortgage lending industry generally strongly support the overall thrust of the CFPB’s proposed amendments to its 2013 mortgage rules that would enable a limited “right to cure” a “qualified mortgage” that inadvertently falls outside the points-and-fees cap. The 120-day cure period would only be available if the creditor originated the loan as a QM loan in good faith, the loan otherwise meets the QM requirements, and the creditor or assignee maintains and follows policies and procedures for post-consummation review and refunding of overages. “The proposed cure period for points and fees overages would be...

The CFPB officially made it clear again that it will propose a rule to define “larger participants of a market for auto lending,” according to the agency’s recently updated semi-annual rulemaking agenda. The bureau is also now in the process of finalizing a rule defining larger participants in the international money transfer market, after having previously defined larger participants in the consumer debt collection, credit reporting and student loan servicing markets. Elsewhere, the CFPB is...