Borrower participants in the CFPB’s eClosing pilot project scored noticeably higher on three key metrics – efficiency, empowerment and understanding – the bureau announced during a public forum on the project last week. The CFPB surveyed consumers about their perceptions of how efficient the overall process was. This included their perceptions about delays, errors in the documents, and the time between important steps. The study found a 17 percent positive difference in scores for borrowers using eClosings compared to borrowers using paper documents. The CFPB also asked consumers how empowered they felt after the process. The survey asked consumers to respond to statements such as, “I felt I had control over the closing process” or “I felt empowered to play an active ...
So-called marketing service agreements between lenders and real estate service providers may be going the way of the dodo bird after two top mortgage lenders decided in recent days to pull the plug on such business arrangement, apparently in the face of scrutiny from the CFPB. Prospect Mortgage, a top-30 ranked lender, was the first to officially deep-six its MSAs, ostensibly as a precautionary measure, the company said. The lender said it feared that it could eventually run afoul of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Then Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said it too was withdrawing from certain business arrangements where MSAs are involved with its mortgage unit, citing what it called “increasing uncertainty surrounding regulatory oversight ...
The CFPB recently brought a $38.4 million enforcement action against Paymap Inc., a Colorado-based payment processing company, and a related action against LoanCare, LLC, a Virginia-based residential mortgage servicer, for allegedly deceiving consumers with advertisements for a mortgage payment program that promised tens of thousands of dollars in interest savings from more frequent mortgage payments. Specifically, the bureau determined that consumers were lured with deceptive promises of savings and misled them about when their payments would be applied. According to the bureau, the two companies together marketed and provided the “Equity Accelerator Program” – an electronic payment system that enables consumers to make automatic mortgage payments via electronic debits from their bank accounts. Consumers were usually charged a $295 enrollment fee ...
The CFPB brought a $1.6 million enforcement action against Residential Credit Solutions, Inc., a national mortgage servicing company for allegedly blocking consumers’ attempts to save their homes from foreclosure. The bureau accused the mortgage servicer of failing to honor modifications for loans transferred from other servicers, of treating consumers as if they were in default when they weren’t, of sending consumers escrow statements falsely claiming they were due a refund, and of forcing consumers to waive their rights in order to get a repayment plan. Residential Credit Solutions, based in Fort Worth, TX, has roughly $95 million in total assets. Since 2009, approximately 75,000 borrowers have had their loans transferred to the company, according to the CFPB. The company specializes ...
Late last month, the House Financial Services Committee passed a handful of industry-sought measures related to the CFPB, including H.R. 3192, the Homebuyers Assistance Act. The legislation would provide a hold harmless period until Feb. 1, 2016, for the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule that is slated to take effect Oct. 3, 2015. Attorney Richard Andreano, a partner in the mortgage banking unit at the Ballard Spahr law firm, said in a client note that prospects in the Senate, however, are somewhat murky. “An existing bill, S. 1711 (which is a companion bill to H.R. 2213), would provide for a TRID rule hold harmless period until Jan. 1, 2016,” he said. “The bill was introduced on July 7, 2015, and ...
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