The whistleblower who gained fame and a lot of money from suing major banks for “robo-signing” and other improper mortgage servicing practices has filed an amended lawsuit accusing 22 companies of defrauding the Department of Housing and Urban Development of billions of dollars in false FHA claims. Lynn Szymoniak, whose 2011 interview on “60 Minutes” blew the lid off improper servicing practices at some major banks, filed a qui tam, or whistleblower, lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina last week alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act and state false claims statutes. Defendants include CitiMortgage, Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, HSBC USA, JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank, as well as servicers, trustees, custodians and title companies. The lawsuit seeks...
Mortgage industry attorneys expect to see more Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions in the future stemming from compliance deficiencies that were dug up during the supervisory examination process. “One of the things that we saw towards the last quarter of 2013 was a couple of enforcement actions which grew directly out of supervisory exams,” Allyson Baker, a partner in the litigation group at the Venable law firm, said during a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. Baker, formerly an enforcement attorney with the CFPB, was referencing...
The FHFA will show the MI standards to state insurance regulators first, but only if they agree to sign a “non-disclosure” agreement with the FHFA or the government-sponsored enterprises regarding the content they see.
Since Mel Watt was sworn into a five-year term as Federal Housing Finance Agency director on January 6, the former North Carolina Congressman has made no public appearances or policy statements except for canned comments attributed to him in routine FHFA press releases.
Fed chairman Janet Yellen told legislators: “I think it is really very important for Congress to put in place a new system to address GSE reform. I think we still have a system that has systemic risk."
The FHFA permitted Fannie Mae to continue without the ability to assess repurchase late fees because the GSE claimed the cost of setting up such a program could cost $5.4 million
Among the changes on the table are disclosing the loan term, total points and fees, the length of any teaser or introductory rate, and the applicant or borrower’s age and credit score.
New York regulator Lawsky raised concerns about the servicing cost-savings long touted by Ocwen, which are achieved via technology and employees largely located outside of the U.S.
Mortgage originators note that because the rule is more than 1,800 pages long and was issued just 10 weeks ago, there has been little time to study it, let alone consider its implications.
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