Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase settled with the CFPB and the Maryland Attorney General last week, resolving allegations of participating in an illegal marketing kickback scheme with Genuine Title, a title company that has since gone out of business. The government agencies alleged that Genuine Title gave the banks’ loan officers cash, marketing materials and consumer information in exchange for business referrals. The CFPB and the Maryland AG also took action against former Wells Fargo employee Todd Cohen and his wife, Elaine Oliphant Cohen, both of Baltimore, for their alleged involvement. The two government agencies are seeking $24 million in civil penalties from Wells Fargo and $600,000 in civil penalties from JPMorgan Chase. They also want $10.8 million from Wells ...
The CFPB stirred up a hornet’s nest of industry anger and opposition earlier this month when it released an unfinished version of an interest-rate checker, part of a suite of new online tools dubbed “Owning a Home” to help homebuyers better shop around for a mortgage. “One critical feature contained in Owning a Home is the Rate Checker, a tool currently in beta release that helps consumers understand what interest rates may be available to them,” said bureau Director Richard Cordray. “It incorporates information from lenders’ internal rate sheets, information they use to calculate what interest rate is available for a particular consumer. In other words, we are giving consumers direct access to the same type of information that the ...
The legal doctrine of disparate impact is a powerful arrow in the enforcement quiver the CFPB can bring to bear across a number of sectors in the broad financial services industry – and it may get a big boost if the Supreme Court of the United States says it is legal. Last week, the SCOTUS heard oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Et Al., v. The Inclusive Communities Project Inc. (No. 13-1371). The crux of this case is whether disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, where a plaintiff alleges discrimination based on the disparate impact that a defendant’s “facially neutral” practice has on members of a demographic group of society, the ...
When it comes to legal cases at the Supreme Court of the United States, score one for the CFPB. Earlier this month, in Jesinoski v. Countrywide, the SCOTUS essentially upheld the bureau’s position on borrower rescission of a mortgage under the Truth in Lending Act. Specifically, the high court unanimously ruled that TILA only requires written notice to a mortgage lender within three years in lieu of requiring a borrower to formally file a lawsuit within that time span. Under TILA, a borrower may rescind a mortgage within the first three days of consummation of the transaction or the delivery of the mandated disclosures required. However, if a lender fails to make the disclosures demanded under TILA, this right is ...
Even though mortgage-related complaints to the CFPB fell 14.5 percent year over year and 16.1 percent percent quarter to quarter, gripes about the mortgage loan application and origination process dropped even further, a new analysis by Inside the CFPB shows. Consumer criticisms about their loan apps and the overall origination process fell 22.8 percent from 2013 to 2014. The fourth quarter drop-off was even better, down 28.0 percent from the third quarter. While those performances are positive on the surface, they may be indicative of larger trouble elsewhere: in the case of the U.S. mortgage market, the fall in complaints about loan apps and originations is most likely largely due to the continued slow-down ... [with exclusive chart]...
Nearly half of the people who buy a home do not shop for the mortgage they end up with, according to a new report from the CFPB. “When we say that almost half of consumers who take out a mortgage to buy a home fail to shop before applying for a mortgage, this means they seriously considered only a single lender or broker before making their decision,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. By contrast, most homebuyers put a lot of effort into weighing their differing housing needs. They generally consider the most basic questions about which house to buy, such as where they want to live, the proximity to good schools, and how many bedrooms or bathrooms they think they ...
The reconstituted House Financial Services Committee recently adopted an oversight plan for the 114th Congress – and scrutiny of the CFPB remains part of the agenda of the Republican-controlled committee. “The committee will oversee the regulatory, supervisory, enforcement, and other activities of the CFPB, the effect of those activities on regulated entities and consumers, and the CFPB’s collaboration with other financial regulators,” said the plan document. “The committee will also examine the governance structure and funding mechanism of the CFPB.” When it comes to specific sectors of the financial services industry, the committee said it plans to closely review recent rulemakings by the CFPB and other agencies on a variety of mortgage-related issues. “The committee will monitor the coordination and implementation ...
MBA's Dave Stevens did not mince words, calling the CFPB product "the most misleading and inaccurate tool that will do anything but help prospective homebuyers.”
RSS