By KIMBERLEY HAAS The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is targeting discrimination and officials there plan to closely examine financial institutions’ decision-making practices to ensure companies are appropriately testing for and eliminating potential harm to customers. On Wednesday, an updated exam manual was published for evaluating unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices. Officials said in a press release that discrimination can occur in cases where the conduct may be covered by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act – a fair lending law that covers extensions of credit – as well as instances where it does not. The example of being denied a checking account due to race was used as an example of a discriminatory practice. “When a person is denied…
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…
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a joint statement with other government agencies to mortgage servicers announcing a return to enforcement of protections for families and homeowners. The statement cited an April 2020 decision not to take “supervisory or enforcement action” regarding the timing requirements of the Regulation X mortgage servicing rules during the pandemic. The decision would last indefinitely “as long as the servicers made good faith efforts to provide those required notices or disclosures and took the related actions within a reasonable period of time. “ Wednesday’s statement from the CFPB walked back that flexibility, saying mortgage servicers have had plenty of time to adapt their operations to the ongoing challenges of Covid-19. The agencies will return…
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…
