Elizabeth Warren last week ended her controversial term as special advisor to the Treasury and President Obama’s point person for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to return to academia, to be replaced by one of her top deputies, Raj Date. Date currently is the CFPB’s associate director of research, markets and regulations, where he is responsible for the management of several offices, such as research, regulations, credit card markets, mortgage markets, credit…
The Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to strengthen consumer protections by banning deceptive claims about consumer mortgages in advertising or other types of commercial communications. The new rule lists 19 examples of prohibited deceptive claims, including misrepresentations about the existence, nature, or amount of fees or costs to the consumer associated with the mortgage; the terms, amounts, payments, or other requirements relating to taxes or insurance associated with the mortgage; and the variability of interest, payments, or other terms of the mortgage. ...
The Federal Trade Commission announced last month that it will not enforce most provisions of its Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rule against real estate brokers and their agents who help struggling homeowners obtain short sales from their lenders or servicers. The stay applies only to real estate professionals who are licensed and in good standing under state licensing requirements; comply with state laws governing the practices of real estate professionals; and assist or attempt to assist consumers in obtaining short sales in the course of securing the sales of their homes. ...
The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a number of interim final rules in just its first week of official business as a new federal regulator, including one that establishes the procedures for the public to obtain information under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act and in legal proceedings. This interim final rule also establishes the CFPB’s rules regarding the confidential treatment of information obtained from persons in connection with the exercise of its authorities under federal consumer financial law. ...
The FHA’s Mortgagee Review Board last week announced it has taken various administration actions against 240 lenders for failing to meet FHA program requirements. The sanctions include reprimands, probations, suspensions, withdrawals of approval, and civil money penalties. Since 2009, the MRB has taken more than 2,300 administrative actions against lenders, including 1,600 in 2010 – a record. ...
Massachusetts. State Attorney General Martha Coakley reportedly plans to obtain documentation filed by Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems as part of the broader investigation by a 50-state coalition of attorney generals into potentially unlawful foreclosure practices. New Jersey. Former mortgage broker Ara Mesropian, 39, of Paramus, NJ, pleaded guilty to charges that he participated in a mortgage fraud scheme which defrauded lenders and generated millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgage loans. ...
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Martin Gruenberg nomination. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee considered the nomination of Martin Gruenberg to be the chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday, July 26. A vote on his nomination has yet to be scheduled. Federal Housing Finance Agency. Suit against UBS, related defendants. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sued UBS Americas, Inc., and related defendants in federal district court alleging violations of federal securities laws in the sale of residential non-agency mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ...
Wells Fargo was fined $85 million by the Federal Reserve late last month over allegations that Wells did not adequately detect and prevent instances of fraudulent loan applications and the steering of prime borrowers into higher-cost nonprime loans.The Federal Trade Commission said it is mailing 450,177 refund checks worth almost $108 million to homeowners who were allegedly overcharged by Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. ...
The number of lending institutions whose performance under the Community Reinvestment Act “needs to improve” has skyrocketed over the last two years, according to an analysis by Inside Regulatory Strategies of CRA ratings provided by the federal banking regulatory agencies from 2003 through mid-year 2011. In 2003, 0.64 percent of institutions received such a grade. And by 2009, a year after the market’s collapse, that percentage increased to 1.67 percent. ...
Serious delinquency rates on home-equity loans held by banks and thrifts continued to decline in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. However, the improved performance was led by home-equity lines of credit as the non-accrual rate on closed-end seconds increased compared with the previous quarter. The HEL serious delinquency rate (90+ days late plus non-accrual) and net charge off rates for combined HELOC and closed-end second portfolios was 2.09 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2011. That was down ... [includes one data chart]
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