Redlining Isn’t What it Used To Be
Discrimination and Bias in Residential Lending
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Foreclosing on “Zombie” Mortgages: What Lenders and Servicers Should Know
Life After Love Gone Wrong Podcast: Season 3, Episode 2 - Mortgage Mastery: Charting a Financial Course Post-Divorce
Law Brief®: Robert Wolf, Alexander Tiktin and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Continuing Foreclosure/Eviction Moratorium
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 146: Listen and Learn -- Mortgages and Priority
Credit Eco to Go Podcast - Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
In The Cross-Hairs? Protecting Your Company Against Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Investigations and Investors' Mortgage Buyback Claims
Condo Adviser: What is 'FHA approved,' exactly?
Bill on Bankruptcy: Trustees Sleep Easy after High Court Ruling
Bill on Bankruptcy: Sigmund Freud, Marx Brothers, Bernie Madoff
Critical Mortgage Regulatory Updates by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for 2013 and 2014
Bill on Bankruptcy: Delaware to Continue Dominating Bankruptcy
What’s Next from the CFPB
Former Congressman Steve Bartlett Joins the LEVICK Team
Today’s ever-shifting business environment means that consumers, businesses, employers, and employees all expect to transact digitally. To remain efficient and competitive, companies must digitally transform their businesses....more
On August 29, the CFPB issued a consent order against a non-bank direct mortgage lender for misrepresenting the cost of its cash-out refinance loans, which are guaranteed under the VA home loan program, to active-duty...more
Is a “deed in escrow,” sometimes referred to as a “deed in a box,” enforceable in New York? While many real estate attorneys believe that it is not, a recent court ruling illustrates that the answer may not be as...more
Buyer-Broker Commissions - In connection with its guaranteed home loan program, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently adopted a temporary local variance allowing veterans to pay the commission of the real estate...more
On May 31, 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court released its opinion in Crystal Kaye Coan v. Championship Property, LLC, SC-2023-0740. For the first time, the court held that a servicer and/or high bidder from a foreclosure sale...more
As part of the CFPB’s crusade against junk fees, CFPB Director, Rohit Chopra addressed credit report fees in prepared remarks at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Secondary & Capital Markets Conference & Expo 2024. While...more
Corporate structures in commercial real estate transactions can often be very complex and involve layers of entities. Special purpose entities that are bankruptcy remote (“SPEs”) are frequently used in commercial real estate...more
Fund-level subscription-secured revolving lines of credit are a well-established instrument in the toolkits of a variety of private equity fund sponsors and managers, including for venture capital funds, hedge funds, debt...more
On May 1, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced new policies that will allow borrowers to challenge property appraisals they believe to be inaccurate or biased....more
What Happened? The lender and consumers reached a settlement in an appraisal bias case, Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott v. Shane Lanham, 20/20 Valuations, LLC, and loanDepot.com, LLC, filed in Maryland District Court, that...more
What is it and what does it do? An assignment of charter is a security agreement whereby a party (typically, a vessel owner) that has entered into a charter assigns its rights under such charter to a secured party...more
In an effort to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (“HUD” or “Department”) Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) recently introduced its newest loss mitigation...more
Welcome to Wiley’s update on recent developments and what’s next in consumer protection at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In this newsletter, we analyze recent regulatory...more
The fact that commercial transactions can very easily become complex is not a novel statement. When financial institutions lend money to commercial entities, the basic documentation required to evidence the loan, promise to...more
I’ve written at least a dozen articles about the dramatic impact the new CRA is going to have on banks. Until now, only about 1.2% of bank CRA examinations end with a failing grade. But, by the estimates of the regulators, if...more
The Alabama Supreme Court recently issued a major published decision on circumstances in which a residential borrower can challenge a mortgage foreclosure sale. In Littlefield v. Smith, the court elevated the bona fide...more
On January 12, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida denied a defendant-mortgage lender’s motion to stay a case filed by the CFPB. The defendant argued that judicial economy—the preservation of the...more
Over a year after becoming law, New York’s Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act, L. 2022, ch. 821 (eff. Dec. 30, 2022) (FAPA) continues to divide trial courts regarding the constitutionality of the law’s retroactive...more
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a report highlighting various unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts or practices it claims to have uncovered during its supervisory examinations from July 2022 to...more
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced the conforming loan limits for residential mortgage loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2024. Fannie Mae addresses the limits in Lender Letter 2023-09....more
Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of working with and representing numerous construction lenders (and borrowers/developers) in the financing of some of the largest commercial projects in the United...more
Most of us wander through life unconcerned about the vagaries of house finance laws until we decide we want a house. Candidly, because of how house purchases come about, most of us don’t know much about mortgage financing...more
In June of this year, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) introduced rules to allow mortgage lenders to more easily vary contracts in order to allow borrowers to make reduced capital payments or switch to an...more
The FTC settled with Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) and Black Knight, Inc. to resolve allegations that a proposed merger of the nation’s two largest providers of home mortgage loan origination systems (LOS) would...more
Amidst soaring interest rates and the recent swell in commercial real estate loan workouts, borrowers and lenders alike are increasingly considering an alternative to the traditional and sometimes long and cumbersome...more