Consumer complaints about their student loan debt obligations rose slightly at the six-month mark, up 4.8 percent versus the previous year, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. Month over month, gripes were down 4.0 percent. There was a good bit of variation in the numbers, company to company, during both time periods. But there was also a good bit of consistency within individual companies, with six of the top 10 rising or falling according to both metrics. For instance, top-ranked Navient saw consumer criticisms fall 6.8 percent quarter over quarter and 14.8 percent at the mid-year point compared with last year. Meanwhile, at second-ranked Genesis Lending, consumer complaints spiked 29.9 percent QOQ and skyrocketed more than 1,000 ...

The bank said it is cooperating with the two investigations, which could result in treble damages under The False Claims Act.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Columbia recently issued a stay against a $109.2 million fine levied by the bureau against PHH Corp. related to the lender’s captive mortgage insurance activities. The bureau had initiated an administrative proceeding against the nonbank lender, accusing it of harming consumers through a mortgage insurance kickback scheme tied to a captive MI. A judge agreed and recommended a penalty of just $6.4 million, which the CFPB ignored and jacked up to $109.2 million, a figure the regulator argued represented all the MI premiums received after July 2008. What startled the industry was the CFPB’s decision to throw out previous guidance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development under which PHH and ...

Subsequent to the publication deadline for the previous issue of Inside the CFPB, American Honda Finance Corp. submitted a statement in response to the enforcement action brought against it late last month by the CFPB and the Department of Justice.“AHFC strongly opposes any form of discrimination, and we expect our dealers to uphold this principle as well,” said the lender. “We firmly believe that our lending practices have been fair and transparent. “AHFC has a difference of opinion with the CFPB and the DOJ regarding the methodology used to make determinations about lending practices, but we nonetheless share a fundamental agreement in the importance of fair lending,” the company added.In cooperation with the CFPB and the DOJ, AHFC...

CFPB Sends Questionnaire to Debt Collection Entities. The CFPB recently sent a questionnaire to a variety of debt collection firms, creditors and service providers in an effort to help the bureau “better understand operational costs and other factors associated with debt collection.” Noting that participation is voluntary, the consumer regulator said industry responses “will inform the bureau’s analysis of the costs and benefits of potential new rules related to debt collection.” The questionnaire asks about basic activities and operational costs of collecting debt, including, for example, questions about vendors used for activities such as dialers or print mailings, maintaining data about consumer accounts, and furnishing information to credit bureaus. “After we have received the questionnaire responses, we plan to reach ...

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs this week announced it has set aside $1.45 billion for legal expenses for the second quarter of 2015, bringing its total anticipated legal costs so far to $5.9 billion to settle Department of Justice claims stemming from the sale of vintage non-agency MBS. A good chunk of that figure – $270 million – is expected to be tapped to resolve residential MBS litigation brought by pension funds led by NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund of Illinois ...

The brunt of the new revenue also looks as though it will be collected from mortgage borrowers.

Brian O’Reilly, president of The Collingwood Group, believes the CFPB is out of control with its regulatory crackdown...

Meanwhile, PHH may be facing exposure on a front that investors had no clue about until recently: marketing service agreements...

The Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program has announced new maximum attorney fees for all loan terminations completed on or after Aug. 31, 2015. In this regard, the VA has published in the July 31 Federal Register an updated table of the cost of legal services for terminating VA loans in judicial and non-judicial jurisdictions. The amounts of legal fees in the table are deemed “reasonable and customary” by VA for all states, based on an annual agency review of such fees allowed by other government-related home loan programs. Issued by VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the list of fees cover the cost of terminating a single-family home loan, including foreclosure, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure and bankruptcy-related services. Based on increases announced over the past year by the VA and the government-sponsored enterprises, the VA has deemed it necessary to publish a ...