In a June 3, 2022 court filing, Kabbage, Inc. (doing business as KServicing), a fintech lender, disclosed that it is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) under the False Claims Act. The investigation,...more
At the beginning of his term, President Biden declared that his administration would make it a policy to eliminate “racial bias and other forms of discrimination in all states of home-buying and renting.”...more
10/5/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Community Reinvestment Act ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disparate Impact ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Lending ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First-Lien ,
Housing Market ,
Mortgages ,
OCC ,
Racial Bias ,
Real Estate Transactions ,
Redlining ,
Section 1071 ,
Settlement Agreements
For those who have been wondering—as I did in a previous post—what the new presidential administration would mean for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency that has been in Republicans’ crosshairs...more
3/23/2017
/ Administrative Proceedings ,
Banking Sector ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
PHH Corp. v CFPB ,
Removal For-Cause ,
RESPA ,
Single Director ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Trump Administration
With 2016 rapidly drawing to a close, here are some thoughts regarding the types of litigation and legal/regulatory issues that will likely be top-of-mind for financial services companies, especially mortgage companies and...more
12/23/2016
/ Banks ,
Civil Investigation Demand ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Data Breach ,
Data Security ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
FDIC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Indemnification Clauses ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
PHH Corp. v CFPB ,
RMBS
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a highly influential appellate court sitting in New York, on September 26 issued a unanimous ruling with major implications for antitrust and unfair competition laws,...more
9/28/2016
/ American Express ,
Anti-Steering Rules ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Credit Cards ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Fees ,
Financial Institutions ,
Merchants ,
Retailers ,
Reversal ,
Unfair Competition
A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit accusing MasterCard, Visa and three major banks of illegally fixing ATM prices to the detriment of consumers. A federal district judge had thrown out the lawsuit in 2013 after...more
8/19/2015
/ American Express ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Anti-Steering Rules ,
ATMs ,
Bank of America ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Debit Cards ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Financial Institutions ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
MasterCard ,
Payment Processors ,
Transaction Fees ,
Visa Inc ,
Wells Fargo
Evidence is mounting that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are taking a renewed interest in investigating possible redlining—the practice of lenders charging certain groups...more
Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed mortgage lender, filed suit on Friday, April 17 in the United States District Court in Detroit against the United States Department of Justice...more
BofA’s “hustling” attempt to overturn a $1.27 billion judgment against it and Countrywide—along with the individual defendant identified in the next paragraph, the “Defendants”—in the U.S. District Court for the Southern...more
2015 is leaving Standard and Poor’s (S&P) quite a bit poorer. Yesterday, the major credit rating agency agreed to pay $1.375 billion to resolve lawsuits brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice and attorney...more
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone recently profiled the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking in his article, The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase’s Worst Nightmare....more
Bank of America took a big hit when it reached a record-breaking $16.65 billion mortgage settlement with the United States Department of Justice in August. The company is likely to attempt to recoup as much of the penalty as...more
Citigroup announced last week that it will pay $7 billion to end an investigation by the U.S Department of Justice into misconduct related to its mortgage securitization practices. The blockbuster settlement came days before...more
As detailed in an August 2013 Salon article by David Dayen and a September 2013 Bloomberg Businessweek article by Karen Weise, West Palm Beach, Florida homeowner and attorney Lynn Szymoniak helped blow the whistle on...more
On Tuesday, Bank of America disclosed in its annual report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that “government regulators” in North America, Europe and Asia are investigating its foreign exchange and...more
On Tuesday, the United States Justice Department announced that it finalized a settlement agreement with JPMorgan Chase for $13 billion. This settlement will resolve a multitude of state and federal investigations into...more
A federal jury ruled yesterday that Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America, defrauded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by selling them defective mortgages in advance of the great financial crisis of 2008. A former Countrywide...more
Stop me if you have heard something like this before. The Department of Justice announced a civil lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that Bank of America defrauded buyers of mortgage-backed securities by lying about the quality of...more
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil suit in the Central District of California against Standard & Poor’s Financial Services (S&P) and its parent company McGraw-Hill. The suit alleges that S&P engaged in a...more