Others believe thesecases could have a chilling effect on FHA lending to the detriment of first-time homebuyers and borrowers with insufficient cash for a downpayment.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council of the Treasury Department has its eye on the rapidly growing market presence of nonbank servicers such as Ocwen, Nationstar Mortgage and Walter Investment Management.
SunTrust Mortgage, based in Richmond, VA, agreed to pay a total of $968 million to settle allegations of origination and servicing wrongdoing under a consent order brought by the CFPB. The Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and state attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia joined in the settlement, which stemmed from the National Mortgage Servicing Settlement. The company will provide $500 million in loss-mitigation relief to underwater borrowers. The order also will require SunTrust to pay $40 million to approximately 48,000 consumers who lost their homes to foreclosure, and $10 million to cover losses it caused to the FHA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Rural Housing Service. The order...
The CFPB recently ordered a New Jersey company, Stonebridge Title Services Inc., to pay a $30,000 civil penalty to the bureau for allegedly paying illegal kickbacks for referrals. According to the CFPB, Stonebridge paid commissions to more than 20 independent sales representatives who referred title insurance business to Stonebridge. Stonebridge solicited people to provide it with referrals of title insurance business, offering to pay commissions of up to 40 percent of the title insurance premiums Stonebridge itself received, the bureau alleged. “These practices violated Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, which prohibits kickbacks and payment of unearned fees in the context of residential real estate transactions,” the CFPB said. Paying commissions for referrals is allowed under RESPA ...
To minimize the risk that their newly minted mortgage loans will fail to comply with the CFPB’s ability-to-pay rules, originators, correspondent lenders and purchasers have begun using independent advisors to perform various quality control functions. Among those functions are ATR/qualified mortgage review, mortgage risk assessment and a mortgage defense package, according to Ron D’Vari, CEO of NewOak, an independent financial services advisory firm in New York City. The ATR/QM review consists of a three-step process (aimed at compliance with ATR/QM requirements) run in conjunction with a credit review or stand-alone, D’Vari said in an online blog post recently. “The first step is diagnostics involving standard due diligence review aimed at identifying deficiencies leading to potential liability for non-compliance with ATR ...
Rod Alba, senior regulatory counsel for the American Bankers Association, told attendees at this year’s ABA regulatory compliance conference it will take the mortgage industry roughly 10 years for all the new rulemakings issued and still pending at the CFPB and elsewhere to reach a point of finality, stability and certainty. “I’ve said that it would take us possibly a full decade to get through all the rulemaking we have with mortgages. We’ve started about two or three years ago with the first being proposed and now at the beginning of this year with some of the rules [taking effect],” he said. Why a decade? “Well, not all the rules are done yet. As you know, we still have the ...
The House Financial Services Committee passed a handful of CFPB-related bills earlier this month, after a previously scheduled markup had been delayed by the death of the mother of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, the ranking member on the committee. H.R. 3770, the CFPB-IG Act of 2013, introduced by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-OH, was approved 39-20. The bill would create a separate, independent inspector general for the CFPB. The CFPB currently shares an inspector general with the Federal Reserve System. H.R. 4262, the Bureau Advisory Commission Transparency Act, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, was approved by voice vote. H.R. 4262 would open up CFPB advisory board meetings to the public. H.R. 4383, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Small Business ...
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