Good Morning! Today is Thursday, December 9. British government members are under fire for a video showing them laughing about attending a party last year when group gatherings were prohibited. President Biden ordered government agencies to phase out gas-powered vehicles. New Zealand wants to ban all cigarette sales by raising the legal smoking age. And in mortgage and housing news… Webinar Hot Topics: Millennials keeping the market hot, racial bias affecting home appraisals, and automated valuation technology were discussed on Tuesday during a webinar designed to address what mortgage professionals should expect in 2022 and beyond. CFPB Finds Lending Violations: A CFPB report highlighted mortgage-related violations in 2021, including late fees charged to people in forbearance and discriminatory lending practices.…
Delinquency fees charged to forbearance-holders, payment handling violations, and pricing discrimination are among the mortgage-related violations highlighted by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) latest Supervisory Highlights report. “Today’s report reveals that irresponsible or mismanaged firms harmed Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will continue to supervise firms to halt harmful practices before they become widespread.” The report, which did not name particular companies, outlined illegal actions the CFPB claims to have observed in the first half of 2021. The CFPB supervises banks with assets of more than $10 billion and some non-banks, including mortgage companies, private student lenders, and payday lenders. The report called out mortgage lenders for the following: charging delinquency-related fees to…
The number of loans in forbearance stayed more or less the same as exits stalled mid-month, making up 1.9% of all active mortgages, according to Black Knight’s blog, Vision. November has hit a lull in its third week that mimics similar slowdowns in the last few months. Black Knight has characterized these declines as “expected.” The number of active forbearance plans rose 0.2% as activity hit its lowest level since mid-August. Plan volume rose by 5,000 for portfolio and PLS loans with small declines for FHA/VA (-2000) and GSEs (-1000). FHA/VAs saw an increase in new plans, pushing start volume to its highest level since October. Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) head Rohit Chopra has zeroed in on foreclosures since…
Good Morning! Today is Wednesday, November 17. A violent clash erupted when migrants attempted to cross the border between Poland and Belarus yesterday. The House will vote today on censuring Paul Gosar, who tweeted a video depicting violence against President Biden. LA’s Staples Center will be renamed Crypto.com Arena. And in mortgage and housing news… Double-Digit Rent Growth: Rent prices rose 10.2.% YOY in September as growth remains at record highs, according to CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index. nCino Acquires SimpleNexus: Fintech nCino is expanding its mortgage market reach by acquiring SimpleNexus for $1.2 billion in stocks and cash. Homes At Auction: More than 60% of US consumers would buy a home at auction, including 75% of Millennials, a ServiceLink survey…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday moved to beef up the federal eviction moratorium by requiring debt collectors to provide written notice to renters of their rights – and bars debt collectors from misrepresenting tenants’ protection from eviction. The Centers for Disease Control issued the eviction moratorium in an effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19 during the pandemic. Debt collectors who evict tenants could be prosecuted and be exposed to lawsuits by those they evicted, the CFPB said. “With COVID-19 killing hundreds of Americans every day, kicking families out into the street during this pandemic may literally be a death sentence,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio said. “No one should be evicted from their home without understanding their…
With 2.5 million Americans still in mortgage forbearance plans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing rule changes designed to prevent people from losing their homes when the foreclosure bans expire. The CFPB issued a proposal Monday that would: Prohibit lenders from starting foreclosure proceedings until after December 31 to give borrowers time to get caught up.Provide options to lenders to offer streamlined loan modification options to borrowers with Covid-19-related issues.Require lenders to communicate with borrowers in a timely way to ensure they are aware of their options. “The nation has endured more than a year of a deadly pandemic and a punishing economic crisis. We must not lose sight of the dangers so many consumers still face,” CFPB Acting…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission on Monday issued a warning to landlords to “stop illegal evictions” during the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement was issued as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended its eviction moratorium, banning landlords from kicking tenants out for being unable to make their rental payments. “Staff at both agencies will be monitoring and investigating eviction practices, particularly by major multistate landlords, eviction management services, and private equity firms, to ensure that they are complying with the law,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio and FTC Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Slaughter said. “Evicting tenants in violation of the CDC, state, or local moratoria, or evicting or threatening to evict them without apprising them of…
Millions of Americans face foreclosure and eviction from their homes once housing pandemic protections come to an end, according to a report released Monday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB found that nearly 11 million families are behind on rent or mortgage payments, with 8.8 million behind on rent and 2.1 million behind on their mortgages. That accounts for nearly $90 billion in missed mortgage payments. The report also found: Black and Hispanic families are more than twice as likely to report being behind on housing payments than white families.While mortgage forbearance has dropped foreclosures to historic lows, 1 million homeowners are more than 90 days behind on payments and are likely to experience severe financial hardship when…
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced the appointment of Rohit Chopra as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency he worked at during the Obama Administration. Chopra, currently a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, previously served as associate director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He led the agency’s work on student loans. Rohit Chapra Chopra was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2018 for his role at the FTC, “where he has pushed for aggressive remedies against lawbreaking companies, especially repeat offenders,” according to the Biden transition team’s announcement. “Together with state and international law enforcement partners, he has worked to increase scrutiny of dominant technology firms that pose risks to privacy, national security, and…
Mortgage servicer Nationstar, which does business as Mr. Cooper, agreed to pay a $74.5 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, state attorneys general and bank regulators for violating a variety of federal laws designed to protect borrowers. Regulators had accused Mr. Cooper of violating the law from 2012 to 2015 by: Failing to identify thousands of loans with existing in-flight modifications and failing to recognize some transferred loans with pending loss mitigation applications or trial modification plans or failing to identify and honor other borrowers’ loan modification agreements.Foreclosing on borrowers to whom it had promised foreclosure holds while they applied for loss mitigation relief.Improperly increasing borrowers’ permanent, modified monthly loan payments.Failing to timely disburse borrowers’ tax payments from…
