The CFPB and the Florida Attorney General’s office were granted a $27.7 million final judgment on Friday against the Hoffman Law Group and corporate affiliates, which allegedly used deceptive marketing practices and scammed distressed homeowners into paying illegal advance fees. The lawsuit named Hoffman Law Group (formerly Residential Litigation Group), its operators, Michael Harper, Benn Willcox and attorney Marc Hoffman, and its affiliated companies, Nationwide Management Solutions, Legal Intake Solutions, File Intake Solutions, and BM Marketing Group, all based in North Palm Beach, FL. The two government agencies accused the companies of tricking consumers into paying millions of dollars in illegal upfront fees to join frivolous lawsuits that the companies falsely claimed would pressure banks to modify their loans or ...
The Republican version of regulatory relief legislation that passed out of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee recently revises a handful of CFPB rulemakings in a number of key areas, most notably in liberalizing the criteria for qualified mortgage status under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule.However, the lender/creditor would have to hold the loan in portfolio from its inception, or any acquirer of the loan must continue to hold it in portfolio.Additionally, the mortgage cannot have been acquired through securitization, nor can it have certain forbidden features, like negative amortization, interest-only provisions, or a loan term in excess of 30 years. Further, the lender would be required to document the borrower’s income, employment, assets and credit history...
The CFPB plans to release its long-awaited final rule to implement Dodd-Frank Act amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in late summer, according to the bureau’s Spring 2015 rulemaking agenda, which was released late last month. “The proposal would help align the law with existing industry standards for collecting data on mortgage loans and applications,” said the agency. “It would also improve HMDA’s effectiveness through changes to institutional and transactional coverage, modifications of reporting requirements, and clarifications of existing regulatory provisions. We expect to release a final rule in late summer.” Elsewhere, the CFPB continues to be steadfast on the Aug. 1, 2015, effective date for its TILA/ RESPA integrated disclosure rule, and its latest rulemaking agenda betrays no ...
FSOC Advises Continued Collaboration on Nonbank Mortgage Servicers. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, of which the CFPB is a member, expressed continuing concern about the large share of mortgage servicing rights being handled by nonbank mortgage servicers these days, and urged continued collaboration between state and federal regulators in ratcheting up their oversight to strengthen such companies. “[N]onbank mortgage servicing companies, which in recent years have purchased large amounts of mortgage servicing rights from banks and thrifts, have grown to account for a material portion of the mortgage servicing market,” the report said. FSOC went on to note that in January of this year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed new minimum financial eligibility requirements for mortgage seller/servicers that do ...
“What Dewsnup held is that the lienholder, according to the basic non-bankruptcy bargain, is entitled to keep its lien until payment in full or until a lender decides to foreclose,” said attorney Danielle Spinelli...
“These are serious loan officers,” he noted. Just how serious? According to the show’s website, some of the top producing LOs in attendance earn between $500,000 and $5 million…
An FHA proposal aimed at clarifying loan-certification rules is a step in the right direction but it needs more work, according to industry observers. Lenders declined to comment on the proposed form changes but they all agree that the proposal does not go far enough. The revisions aim to make the language in Form 92900-A (HUD Addendum to Uniform Residential Loan Application) clearer for both borrower and lender. Applicants for an FHA or a VA loan sign the addendum to certify to the government that the information provided by the borrower on the mortgage loan application is correct. By signing the addendum, the borrower certifies that he or she will make payments on the home loan or become indebted to the federal government upon failure to repay the loan. For lenders, signing the form certifies that the loan application meets all of FHA’s insurance requirements. This is where lenders often ...
NTFN Inc., a direct-endorsement lender in the Dallas-Ft.Worth area, may have to indemnify FHA for losses incurred allegedly due to sloppy underwriting. Results of an audit performed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general found that 23 loans out of the 3,046 FHA loans originated by NTFN from July 2012 through June 2014 were seriously delinquent in the first year. FHA is considering whether to require indemnification. Despite its low FHA origination volume, NTFN was targeted for a compliance audit because its loan default rate was the second highest in its principal area of business during the audit period. HUD auditors attributed the subpar underwriting to the lender’s poor due diligence, failure to perform early payment default and quality control reviews and to not having an adequate quality control system. The unpaid principal balance of the ...
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