Some of the most well-known names in mortgage lending and servicing continue to deal with a variety of regulatory crackdowns and judicial disputes, some of which stem from the 2008 mortgage market collapse. In Massachusetts, HSBC has agreed to pay $4.1 million to resolve allegations that it violated state consumer protection laws by receiving commissions and other kickbacks from insurer Assurant Inc. relating to force-placed insurance policies that it procured for struggling homeowners in the state. Under the terms of the settlement, HSBC will provide...

The California Supreme Court late last week issued a ruling in a case where a borrower challenged the foreclosure of a loan that was included in a non-agency MBS issued in 2007. The court allowed the borrower’s claims to proceed, which could prompt a significant increase in foreclosure-related litigation for California mortgages in non-agency MBS. An opinion authored by Kathryn Werdegar, an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, stresses that the court’s ruling in Yvanova v. New Century Mortgage is narrow. “We hold only that a borrower who has suffered a non-judicial foreclosure does not lack standing to sue for wrongful foreclosure based on an allegedly void assignment merely because he or she was in default on the loan and was not a party to the challenged assignment,” Werdegar said. The ruling left...

An appeals court in Massachusetts recently ruled in favor of a borrower in a case involving the determination of the borrower’s ability to repay a balloon mortgage, setting a concerning precedent, according to industry lawyers. Moronta v. Nationstar Mortgage involves a refinance originated by Fremont Investment & Loan in January 2007 for a borrower in Quincy, MA. The refi included a first-lien 3/1 adjustable-rate mortgage that amortized over 50 years with a ...

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its “no-action” policy towards market innovators that develop new financial services products, adopting its proposal largely unchanged. But industry experts think the new policy is not only useless but actually counterproductive in that it will likely discourage lenders from developing new loan products in an evolving mortgage market – not foster more innovation. This new policy – created under the CFPB’s Project Catalyst – “is designed to improve access to consumer financial products and services that promise substantial consumer benefits,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “We want to foster a consumer financial marketplace where companies develop safe, innovative products and approaches that can help make people’s lives better.” Under the policy, bureau staff would issue...

The sale of jumbo mortgages – and even agency loans – by nonbanks continues to be problematic because of the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. One mortgage official cited an example of a mortgage with TRID errors that was sold to one of the government-sponsored enterprises. “The lender self-reported the problems and was immediately asked to repurchase the loan,” this official said. Speaking of the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $56.56 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, a modest 5.6 percent decline from the previous month, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside The GSEs, an affiliated publication. December, however, may have been an anomaly. Many mortgage originators reported delays in loan closings in October ...

Since the Oct. 3, 2015, implementation of the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule – TRID – attorney Daniella Casseres, an associate in the financial institutions regulatory practice at the Offit Kurman law firm in New York City, has received hundreds of questions concerning the new disclosure requirements.In a recent blog post, she provided answers to some of the most frequent and most pressing. Many have asked if they need to send all required three-day disclosures if the individual is just shopping. “The TRID rules require that you send a Loan Estimate and the home loan toolkit, when applicable, within three business days of receiving an application. An application for purposes of this rule, means the receipt of the following six pieces of ...

Mortgage lenders have had a little more than three months to get used to the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule, but many are still squirming with uncertainty about civil liability and enforcement, particularly when it comes to errors in the Loan Estimate and the Closing Disclosure. Much of the problem stems from ambiguity in the wording of the rule itself. “Although TRID implements portions of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the text of the regulation does not state which statutory liability applies to the various parts of the rule or forms,” K&L Gates attorneys Holly Spencer Bunting and Charles Weinstein said in a recent review. Instead, civil liability under TRID is a matter that ...

The recent death of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may make it difficult for the nation’s highest court to consider a pending case that has far-reaching implications for the mortgage industry and the broader financial services sector. The specific question in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins is whether the respondent (Robins) identified an injury-in-fact under Article III of the U.S. Constitution by alleging that the petitioner (Spokeo) had willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by publishing inaccurate personal information in consumer reports – in this case, on a consumer-reporting type website – without following reasonable procedures to assure the information’s accuracy. Spokeo tried to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Robins could not prove he suffered a specific financial ...

The CFPB issued a compliance bulletin recently that spells out the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s requirement that furnishers of information to credit reporting agencies (CRAs) institute reasonable written policies and procedures that ensure the accuracy and integrity of such information, including specialty CRAs. “The supervisory experience of the bureau suggests that some financial institutions are not compliant with their obligations under Regulation V with regard to furnishing to specialty CRAs,” said the bulletin. “Furnishers’ establishment and implementation of reasonable policies and procedures regarding the accuracy and integrity of information are essential components of a fair and accurate credit reporting system.” Further, “Such policies and procedures protect against the furnishing of inaccurate information that could potentially cause adverse consequences for consumers ...

The False Claims Act could potentially apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in the future, thanks to increased GSE cases and a broadened claim definition. The risk of the Department of Justice applying the FCA to GSE loans may seem remote, said Andrew Schilling, partner with BuckleySander LLP, but he isn’t counting it out. …