The Department of Housing and Urban Development is apparently poised to begin an investigation of allegations of redlining on the part of CIT Group, Pasadena, CA, through its CIT Bank subsidiary, the successor to OneWest Bank, after agreeing to accept a complaint against the lender filed by the California Reinvestment Coalition. The CRC alleges the bank violated and continues to violate the Fair Housing Act by providing residential real estate-related transactions in a manner that discriminates on the basis of race, color and national origin. Specifically, the complaint alleges that since at least 2011, CIT Bank discriminated in marketing and originating housing-related products, as evidenced by the low number of mortgages it made to African-American, Asian-American and Latino borrowers in ...

Could this be an omen of the decision to come? Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the CFPB’s request for an en banc rehearing in its controversial legal dispute, PHH Corp. v. CFPB. “Upon consideration of respondent’s [CFPB] petition for rehearing en banc, the briefs amici curiae in support of the petition, the response of the United States to the petition, the response of the petitioners [PHH Corp.] to the petition, the supplemental response of petitioners, and the vote in favor of the petition by a majority of judges eligible to participate, it is ordered the petition be granted,” 10 of the court’s 11 justices wrote in their ruling. One of ...

Despite a Feb. 21 ruling barring GSE shareholders from making illegal Treasury sweep claims, plaintiffs and speculators are keeping hope alive. In Perry Capital LLC vs. Treasury, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia put a stop to shareholders who have been arguing that the government is illegally confiscating GSE profits, citing language in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The Appeals Court notes: “We hold that the stockholders’ statutory claims are barred by the Recovery Act’s strict limitation on judicial review … We also reject most of the stockholders’ common-law claims. Insofar as we have subject matter jurisdiction over the stockholders’ common-law claims against...

Several more documents were released in relation to an ongoing GSE shareholder case out to prove that the government knew Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were on the path to profitability at the time the Treasury sweep was put in place.The release came after a judge rejected the government’s appeal of an earlier ruling requiring it to turn over a slew of documents for which it had asserted various forms of privilege in Fairholme Funds vs. United States, et al. All of the latest documents are from 2012. They include a July 20, 2012, memo stating “thoughts on how to signal a plan to amend the preferred stock purchase agreements,” from Treasury...

In a long-awaited decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled this week against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders who have been contesting the Treasury Department’s net worth sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ earnings. On Feb. 21, Judge Royce Lamberth ruled shareholders in Perry Capital LLC vs. Treasury, et al, are barred by the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act from making their claims. Perry sued...

A Minnesota state court has rendered a judgment that could substantially limit the amount of damages Residential Funding Co. and its successor-in-interest, the ResCap Liquidating Trust, could recover if it were ever to prevail on its claims in any given lawsuit against correspondent lenders, according to industry attorneys. On Feb. 1, the District Court of Hennepin County held that RFC and ResCap would not be able to pursue loan-by-loan damages associated with a repurchase claim and, thus, could not use a repurchase price “formula” to establish damages, said Philip Stein, a partner with Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod, in an analysis. The decision favored...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late last week won a fresh hearing of its lawsuit with PHH Mortgage, with the attention likely to center on constitutional issues rather than the agency’s aggressive interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit accepted the CFPB’s request for an en banc hearing of its lawsuit with PHH. In October, a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in favor of PHH, rejecting the agency’s RESPA interpretation regarding captive mortgage-insurance practices that had for years been widely accepted as legal, even though such programs have been in run-off mode since the housing meltdown. The issue that’s...

Wall Street giant The Blackstone Group this week revealed its investment in “fix and flip” lenders B2R Finance, Charlotte, and Jordan Capital Finance, Chicago, spurring talk that eventually the firm may enter the fledgling nonprime residential market. One nonprime executive, requesting anonymity, told Inside MBS & ABS that he has had several discussions with Blackstone-related companies about partnering with his shop. Issuing MBS is one of the company’s goals, he said, adding: “They want in.” Over the past three years, Blackstone has made...

The spike in FHA delinquencies in the fourth quarter of 2016 justifies the Trump administration’s decision last month to suspend and review the outgoing administration’s lowering of FHA mortgage insurance premiums, said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. Commenting on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s quarterly delinquency rate survey, Hensarling praised President Trump’s decision to set aside the 25-basis-point premium reduction, which Inside FHA/VA Lending reported first on Jan. 6, 2017. “Lowering premiums at this time was a big mistake,” said Hensarling. “The sudden increase in delinquencies makes it clear that President Trump was absolutely right to undo the previous administration’s irresponsible action.” Hensarling recalled that in 2013 “taxpayers had to spend $1.7 billion to bail out the FHA.” Going forward, the FHA must be fiscally sound, with a ...

Three federal agencies have announced a joint settlement agreement and consent order with a New York FHA lender and several of its top executives to resolve alleged violations of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act and the False Claims Act. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Inspector General of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced the $1.25 million settlement with Franklin First Financial, Ltd., its Chief Executive Officer Frederick Assini, Chief Operating Officer Christopher Berman, and Andrew Dauro, a manager of the company. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants made illegal payments on behalf of borrowers from February 2009 through March 2010 to keep default rates low so that Franklin First could keep its ...