Mortgage industry trade groups filed a brief last week asking the Supreme Court of the United States to take up a case involving fees charged by Connecticut aimed at mortgage recordings by Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. In February, Connecticut’s Supreme Court upheld fees imposed by the state in 2013 that tripled charges for mortgages recorded with MERS compared with non-MERS recording fees in the case of MERSCORP Holdings v. Dannel Malloy. In the new brief, industry participants caution...

The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that had cleared Freddie Mac of charges that it misled investors about its involvement in the subprime mortgage market. The lawsuit was filed in 2008 by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which claimed Freddie made false public financial statements that hid its exposure to risky loans. The fund alleged that it lost more than $27.2 million as the value of Freddie stock plummeted. OPERS said...

Ocwen Financial reported a net loss of $87.20 million for the second quarter of 2016, with most of the loss related to so-called legacy issues. A planned settlement with the Department of Justice of two lawsuits involving the Home Affordable Modification Program and FHA mortgages caused $40.10 million in pre-tax losses for the nonbank lender-servicer. The company also paid $28.10 million during the quarter to cover the cost of monitoring settlements involving federal regulators ...

EverBank Financial announced this week that it’s in “advanced discussions” with a “well-respected financial services company” that plans to acquire the depository. Everbank ranked 15th among jumbo lenders as of the first quarter of 2016 with $725.0 million in such originations during the quarter, according to Inside Nonconforming Markets. The company formerly known as NovaStar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, citing ... [Includes four briefs]

Class-action plaintiffs might not be assured of a final victory despite a favorable jury verdict in the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s affirmation of district courts’ power to decertify a class even after a jury verdict. Industry attorneys say that the court’s recent ruling in Mazzei v. The Money Store means that defendants can obtain decertification of a class action not only leading up to trial, but even after a jury verdict in favor of the class. In Mazzei, the Second Circuit reaffirmed...

In a warning to other lenders on the importance of proper vendor oversight, the CFPB recently brought a$10 million enforcement action against Santander Bank, based in Wilmington, DE, because of its allegedly illegal overdraft services practices. Among the practices at issue, the bureau said the bank signed up consumers for overdraft services without their consent. “In some instances, Santander’s telemarketerbriefly described [the bank’s] Account Protector [service] to consumers, then asked for the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, and enrolled them without their consent,” said the CFPB. “In other instances, consumers said they did not want to enroll but requested information about the overdraft service, but the telemarketer enrolled them anyway,” the bureau added. Also, call ...

In May, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Robins v. Spokeo, Inc. that a plaintiff has to demonstrate that he or she suffered “concrete” and “real” harm in order to have standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution to successfully sue for statutory damages under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.The CFPB has previously argued that is not necessarily so, and with the SCOTUS remanding the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the bureau has recently reiterated its argument in an amicus brief with the lower court. The specific question in this case is whether the plaintiff (Robins) identified an injury-in-fact under Article III of...

In State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, et al. v. Lew, et al., the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has shot down the latest attempt to void the actions taken by CFPB Director Richard Cordray while he was still a recess appointee. At issue are several CFPB rulemakings, such as those having to do with electronic fund transfers, integrated mortgage disclosures, escrow requirements, ability to repay/qualified mortgages, and mortgage servicing. On July 18, 2011, President Obama first nominated Cordray to serve as director of the bureau. When the Senate took no action on that nomination, Obama appointed him to the position on Jan. 4, 2012, invoking his...

Stakeholders in the MBS market should pay attention to a recent U.S. 11th Circuit opinion concerning a jury verdict in which the court focused on the similarities and differences between two kinds of securities fraud, suggested attorneys in their analysis of the case. Although the opinion in SEC v. Radius Capital Corp. is unpublished and not a binding precedent, it gives further clarity to two of the most important rules used by the Securities and Exchange Commission in targeting securities fraud, according to attorneys with the law firm Carlton Fields. The SEC sued...