While legal attempts by city governments to force large banks to pay for the high cost of foreclosure have failed, efforts to resolve the problem in state legislatures appear to be making headway. The City of Miami suffered consecutive defeats in three of the four lawsuits it filed against major banks after a federal district court judge dismissed all three because of the city’s lack of standing to bring suit under the federal Fair Housing Act. U.S. District Court Judge William Dimitrouleas dismissed...

The six lawsuits filed in June by institutional investors against non-agency MBS trustees are just the beginning of actions against trustees, according to an attorney who has pursued representation-and-warranty claims against non-agency MBS issuers. “We are likely to see a flood of litigation against trustees alleging that the banks sat on their hands and blew the statute of limitations on valuable putback claims,” according to Isaac Gradman, an attorney at Perry Johnson Anderson Miller & Moskowitz. The June lawsuits by BlackRock, PIMCO and other institutional investors targeted...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency remains committed under new management to deploy regulatory countermeasures against municipalities that move forward with proposed efforts to seize underwater mortgages via local eminent domain powers, agency officials say. After a quiet period when it appeared this issue was going away, eminent domain initiatives are cropping up again, including a recent push by a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to get the city to partner with Richmond, CA.

SunTrust Mortgage will pay $320 million to resolve a criminal investigation and allegations that the bank misled homeowners interested in the Home Affordable Modification Program, the Department of Justice announced late last week. In the first settled case of its kind, SunTrust allegedly misrepresented how long it would take to determine if a borrower was qualified for HAMP and how long the trial period would last. “Specifically, SunTrust made...

An industry that is used to reading about MERS’ court victories was stunned last week after a federal court judge in Pennsylvania found Merscorp Inc. and its electronic mortgage registry system in violation of state recording laws for real estate properties. While the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge J. Curtis Joyner may be appealed, MERS could be held liable for its role as an “agent” for member-lenders involved in property transfers and for alleged unjust enrichment, according to legal experts. The case was brought...

President Barack Obama’s original recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB was likely unconstitutional, according to the rationale the U.S. Supreme Court used late last month to unanimously declare the president’s nominees to the National Labor Relations Board out of bounds. Late last month, in NLRB v. Noel Canning, the SCOTUS ruled that the president’s Jan. 4, 2012, recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were invalid. Alan Kaplinsky, a practice leader with the Ballard Spahr law firm, explained the legal question in dispute this way: “The NLRB recess appointments were made on January 4, the day after a new session of Congress had begun with a pro forma January 3 session and two days before ...

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors told the CFPB it is concerned that certain bad actors within the mortgage lending industry could take advantage of the bureau’s proposed “right to cure” an otherwise qualified mortgage loan that inadvertently falls outside the ability-to-repay rule’s 3 percent cap on points and fees. The CSBS concern revolves largely around bona fide discount points. “State banking regulators support measures that would increase access to credit for consumers who are at the margins of the points-and-fees limits,” the CSBS said in public comment letter to the bureau. “However, there is concern that the proposed ‘cure’ mechanism for inadvertent points and fee miscalculations could disguise or promote the misuse of discount points by unscrupulous lenders seeking ...

Credit union industry representatives want the CFPB to expand some exemptions in some of its recent rulemakings so their CU members could reach larger portions of their targeted markets. One of the recent amendments the bureau proposed to its mortgage rules issued in 2013 would provide an alternative definition of “small provider” applicable to Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities that service loans for a fee and on behalf of other nonprofit entities within the same overall organization.This is the so-called “small servicer exemption.” Also for 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities, the proposed rule would exempt certain interest-free, contingent subordinate liens from the credit extension limit under the ability-to-repay rule. This is what’s known as the “small creditor exemption.” As ...

Compliance management systems are a “fundamental focus of supervision” for the CFPB, regardless of whether a given entity is a bank or nonbank, a top official told members of the industry recently. During a recent webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter, Ann Thompson, a senior analyst in the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy, discussed the critical relevance of a sound and solid CMS. “We think that a fully developed compliance management system is important because it should lessen risks to consumer and reduce the potential for violations of federal consumer financial laws,” Thompson said. “Even though the CFPB does not require a particular CMS structure, our supervisory experience has found that an effective CMS commonly has four ...

U.S. Bank became the latest casualty in the government’s offensive against lax underwriting and improper origination of FHA mortgages after the bank to pay $200 million to settle all related charges. The Minneapolis-based bank became the seventh FHA lender since 2012 that has entered into settlement agreements with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve alleged violation of the False Claims Act and the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of government data. The government lawsuits allege that the banks’ certification of loans as eligible for FHA insurance under the direct endorsement program violated the FCA. The banks’ misconduct allegedly contributed to the legacy losses that crippled the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and placed the ...