The Department of Justice and three other federal agencies will rake in $182 million from separate agreements by Wells Fargo and PHH Mortgage over False Claims Act charges. The PHH settlement features a rare FCA action involving loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wells Fargo agreed to pay $108 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2006 and unsealed in 2011. It alleged that the bank overcharged veterans by masking unallowable fees and concealing the fact in order to obtain VA guarantees for the mortgage loans. At the same time, Wells allegedly falsely certified to the VA that it was not charging improper fees. Similar charges were brought...
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said it will be at least two years until Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will adopt alternative credit scoring models. A number of groups have been pushing the government-sponsored enterprises to look beyond the FICO score, and Fannie and Freddie have been studying the issue. But Watt said any major change will have to wait until the GSEs have completed the complex single-security project. “Based on the overwhelming feedback we have received from the industry, it is...
It’s safe to say that CFPB Director Richard Cordray has been one of the most controversial financial regulators to work in Washington, D.C. for quite some time...