Mortgage loan brokers, correspondents and loan originators (“Originators”) who survived (or, in many cases, are still dealing with) the onslaught of “repurchase/indemnification” claims asserted by loan aggregators and...more
Last week H.R.1625 – Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 was enacted. The Act includes a continuation of funding, until September 30, 2018, for the EB-5 Regional Center Program.
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On April 4, 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued proposed regulations ostensibly aimed at curbing inversions and earnings stripping, by companies located in the U.S. with overseas...more
On March 31, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) issued its much anticipated white paper on the role of financial technology (“FinTech”) in the financial services industry. The paper, titled Supporting...more
On December 23, 2015, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Delaware Chancery Court’s award of $195 million to PharmAthene, Inc. (“PharmAthene”) as compensation for lost profits (a/k/a expectation damages) on account of the...more
Citibank, N.A. has asked a federal district court to bless its $23 million settlement in a class action lawsuit alleging a wide-ranging conspiracy among banks to fix yen-denominated London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR)...more
Concerned about “increasing uncertainty surrounding regulatory oversight of these types of arrangements,” Wells Fargo is ending all of its roughly 200 mortgage marketing services and desk rental agreements with builders and...more
8/11/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Borrowers ,
Construction Industry ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Home Buyer ,
HUD ,
Kickbacks ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Real Estate Brokers ,
Real Estate Market ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
RESPA ,
Wells Fargo
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aggressively demanded Wall Street and big bank aggregators (“aggregators”) repurchase millions of defaulted and distressed loans, due to purported breaches...more
6/12/2015
/ Banking Crisis ,
Banking Sector ,
Citibank ,
Fannie Mae ,
Freddie Mac ,
GSE ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Loan Aggregators ,
Mortgage Loan Originators ,
Mortgages ,
Repurchases ,
Settlement Agreements
According to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, home builders have ratcheted up construction in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.135 million units. This is a 20.2% increase from March and...more
A recent class action lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of homeowners in New York against Wells Fargo alleges that while the bank received $25 billion in government bailout funds it failed to make a good faith effort to...more
Despite the improvement in the economy since the advent of the “Great Recession,” many businesses nevertheless continue to struggle. Accordingly, lenders are well advised to stay up to date on “best practices” when facing a...more
The House of Representatives passed legislation that could loosen some of the restrictions imposed by Dodd-Frank on big banks. The bill, Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Businesses Burden Act, passed by a margin of...more
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently released its Leading Market Index (LMI) on November 6th. The report revealed that out of 350 metros evaluated across the country, 59 housing markets have returned to...more
According to Freddie Mac, things are looking up for the South Florida housing market. The August Multi-Indicator Market Index (MIMI) ratings, released last Friday, awarded the Miami Metro Area a score of 69.2. While Miami is...more
Last month, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court stripped St. Jude Melkite Catholic Church of its recently acquired historic designation. This church is located at 1501 Brickell Avenue, in the midst of multiple high rise condominiums...more
After meeting behind closed doors a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve announced its latest monetary policy. Not surprisingly, Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s remarks included a statement on the future (or lack thereof) of the...more
Recent data indicates that the future will bring an increase in single-family building. The Census Bureaus and HUD released numbers last week showing that the annual pace of housing starts were down to 956,000, which is 14.4%...more
10/6/2014
The Federal Reserve is expected to require the biggest U.S. banks to increase reserves in an effort to prevent the possibility of another financial crisis. Federal Reserve Governor Daniel K. Tarullo is scheduled to testify...more
In a regulatory filing filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and released on Monday, August 4, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. announced that it has $4.6 billion in legal reserves. Believe it or not, this massive...more
Former Moody’s analyst, Ilya Kolchinsky, has accused the credit rating powerhouse of overstating its ratings for countless toxic mortgage-backed securities that caused the financial meltdown in 2008, misleading investors and...more
We previously posted about ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products, Inc., 977 N.Y.S.2d 229, 231 (N.Y.A.D. 1st Dept. Dec. 19, 2013), which is a critical ruling out of New York’s intermediate state appellate court. In...more
In what is being reported as the largest settlement ever between the U.S. and a single business entity, Attorney General Eric Holder and Associate Attorney General Tony West announced Thursday that Bank of America Corp....more
According to a recent study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released on August 1, 2014, each $1,000 increase in the price of a newly constructed median priced home results in approximately 206,269...more
SunTrust Banks (“SunTrust”) reached a settlement with Federal prosecutors last week in which it agreed to a $320 million settlement for a combination of consumer relief and housing counseling services. SunTrust issued a press...more
The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) is urging the FHFA to sue its servicers and lender-placed insurance (“LPI”) providers because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have suffered...more