The surge in recent years of Federal Home Loan Bank advances by big banks presents safety and soundness risks, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Office of Inspector General.
Mortgage-related complaints to the CFPB as of the first quarter of 2014 were down significantly compared with the previous year, though they increased compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.
CFPB Servicing Rules Having Intended Effect on Foreclosures. The data and analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services recently examined the impact of the implementation of the CFPB’s new mortgage servicing rules in January and observed a sharp shift in the timing of foreclosure starts. “As the CFPB rules dictate that foreclosure cannot begin until after 120 days of delinquency, the data showed foreclosure starts at the 90-day mark have all but ceased, while four-month delinquency starts have risen over 100 percent since December,” the firm said. At the same time, foreclosure sales hit the lowest levels since 2007. “With fewer loans in the foreclosure process, these numbers will continue to decline, but the result has been an increase in...
Many banks and credit unions support the efforts of the CFPB to bring nonbank money-transfer operations within the scope of the bureau’s oversight. In January, the agency issued a proposed rulemaking that generally would amend the current regulation that defines larger participants of certain consumer financial products and services by adding a new section defining larger participants of the international money-transfer market. The proposal lays out the framework by which the CFPB would identify a nonbank market for international money transfers and define the “larger participants” of this market that would be subject to the CFPB’s supervisory authority. Namely, an entity would be a larger participant if it has at least one million aggregate annual international money transfers. This proposal...
The issue of the recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB may finally have been put to rest now, after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the last remnants of a case brought by the watchdog group, Judicial Watch, under the Freedom of Information Act. Back in September, the court ruled that the CFPB had properly discharged its FOIA obligations in the case for all the documents at issue except one, an e-mail from a White House staffer to a CFPB employee. At the time, “the court agreed with the CFPB’s position that it was entitled to rely on the deliberative process privilege, the attorney client/attorney work product privilege, or the presidential communications...
Debt-settlement company Mission Settlement Agency and its principal, Michael Levitis, pleaded guilty in New York to conspiracy charges of mail and wire fraud, giving the CFPB a significant victory in its first criminal referral. As part of the plea deal struck with federal prosecutors, Levitis and Mission Settlement agreed to forfeit $2.2 million. Levitis faces as much as 10 years in prison, and his company could be fined as much as an additional $4.39 million. The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe on Aug. 21, 2014. In addition to Levitis’ plea, four other former Mission employees, Denis Kurlyand, Boris Shulman, Felix Lemberskiy, and Zakhir Shirinov, previously pled guilty for their roles in the scheme...
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