On August 13, the CFPB announced an advisory opinion on the applicability of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Regulation Z to “contracts for deed.” A contract for deed is an arrangement in which a consumer purchases a home...more
On July 18, the CFPB proposed a new interpretive rule that would characterize earned wage access (“EWA”) products as extensions of credit and subject to the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z. Under the interpretive...more
On April 26, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2024-06, announcing changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) for purchases (H4P loans), a mortgage program...more
In an April 16 unpublished opinion, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel’s earlier decision finding that a mortgage lender not licensed in California violated the state’s usury law...more
On January 11, 2024, an administrative law judge for the NLRB issued an opinion holding that the employment agreement used by a major mortgage lender for all of its approximately 6,000 employees violates the National Labor...more
2/19/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employees ,
Employment Contract ,
Lenders ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
New Guidance ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Rulemaking Process
On December 4, Judge R. Gary Klausner of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment to California’s DFPI upholding the recently adopted commercial financing disclosure regulations...more
12/29/2023
/ California ,
Commercial Loans ,
Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) ,
Disclosure ,
Financial Institutions ,
Lenders ,
Lending ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Small Business ,
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
A number of state and federal regulators, bolstered by messaging from the Biden administration, have embarked on a concerted campaign to address so-called “junk fees.”
• CFPB – On Oct. 11, the CFPB issued an...more
Ten years after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) first promulgated its disparate impact rule (the Rule), on September 19, the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted HUD’s motion for...more
On September 27, the CFPB released its annual report on residential mortgage lending activity and trends for 2022. Under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), the CFPB requires financial institutions to collect and provide...more
Many residential mortgage lenders currently have loan compensation plans that provide for a payment to loan originators of one commission amount for loans funded by the lender, and a smaller commission amount for loans that...more
On September 8, a Texas federal judge ruled that the CFPB exceeded its authority by adopting a sweeping anti-discrimination policy last year. The CFPB adopted the policy in March 2022, via an update to its exam manual,...more
On June 23, in Soaring Pine v. Park St Grp, the Michigan Supreme Court held that under certain circumstances, a lender cannot avoid liability for charging illegally high interest rates by including a usury savings clause in...more
On February 27, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) issued new guidance with respect to the performance of remote work by mortgage loan originators (MLOs) working for licensees under the...more
On February 3, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an opinion and order dismissing with prejudice the CFPB’s complaint for violations of the ECOA against a mortgage lender and its owner...more
2/20/2023
/ Borrowers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Creditors ,
ECOA ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgages ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
Regulation B ,
UDAAP
Recently, the CFPB filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit arguing that the court should reinstate a borrower’s putative class action claim against a national bank. The CFPB argued that the...more
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit held that a mortgage servicer’s failure to provide a required disclosure informing borrowers of their three-day right to rescind the loan under the Truth in...more
On May 9, the CFPB released an advisory opinion affirming that ECOA and its implementing rule, Regulation B, protect not only those persons actively seeking credit, but also those who have sought and received credit. The...more
5/17/2022
/ Advisory Opinions ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
ECOA ,
Fair Lending ,
Loan Servicer ,
New Rules ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Regulation B
On April 28, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 577 which will, among other things, bring back the California Financing Laws (CFL) licensing exemption which permits a lender to make a single commercial loan within a 12-month...more
On March 22, HUD announced the delivery of the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Action Plan to President Biden. The PAVE Action Plan outlines actions that are intended to substantially...more
On February 23, the CFPB outlined a proposal for upcoming joint rulemaking to prevent algorithmic bias in automated home valuation models (AVMs). Here, the CFPB is specifically focused on the potential for AVMs to pose fair...more
3/8/2022
/ Appraisal ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Creditors ,
Fair Lending ,
Final Rules ,
Home Buyer ,
Homeowners ,
Mortgages ,
Property Valuation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rulemaking Process
Last month, the FTC issued an advisory opinion clarifying that the Holder Rule does not preempt any state laws that put more liability on banks that are the “holders” of a loan contract, and in particular, the rule does not...more
Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act states that consumers have the right to access their own bank account and transaction data in a usable electronic format. This provision mandates that the CFPB adopt a rule relating to data...more
The CFPB has amended Regulation Z to address the anticipated sunset of LIBOR, which is expected to be discontinued in June 2023. Some creditors currently use LIBOR as an index for calculating rates for open-end and...more
On November 16, the California DFPI released Version 2.0 of its Annual Report of Finance Lenders, Brokers and PACE Administrators Licensed under the California Financing Law (CFL). The Annual Report examined unaudited data...more
On October 28, newly approved CFPB director, Rohit Chopra, made his first appearance before the House Financial Services Committee since his narrow approval by the Senate. Director Chopra focused on topics with bipartisan...more