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
In a recent podcast, Len and Dean discuss the June 10 article "Manufacturing Fair Lending" from National Mortgage Professional, which delves into the "Modern Theory of Redlining" introduced by bank regulators after AG...more
The Fair Housing Act Applies to Residential Real Estate Appraisals - The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was passed in 1968 to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. Since then, the...more
To keep you informed of recent activities, below are several of the most significant federal and state events that have influenced the Consumer Financial Services industry over the past week...more
The CFPB entered into consent orders with a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage ("HECM," also known as a "reverse mortgage") servicing contractor, its subcontractor, and two of its subcontractor's subsidiaries. The U.S....more
On April 2, 2024, a putative class action was brought against United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) alleging, among other claims, violations of Section 8(a) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The lawsuit contains...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been making waves in the mortgage settlement services space with its renewed increased attention to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act’s (RESPA) anti-kickback...more
On March 17, HUD announced the submission of a final rule—Reinstatement of HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard—which would rescind the agency’s 2020 regulation governing Fair Housing Act (FHA or the Act) disparate impact...more
A&B Abstract: On January 30, 2023, President Biden informed Congress that the COVID-19 National Emergency (the “COVID Emergency”) will be extended beyond March 1, 2023, but that he anticipates terminating the national...more
A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) advisory opinion refreshes the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s computer loan origination system policy statement for a new generation of online marketing...more
On February 14, CFPB Fair Lending Director Patrice Ficklin joined senior leaders from the FDIC, HUD, NCUA, Federal Reserve Board, DOJ, OCC, and FHFA in submitting a joint letter to The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) urging the...more
On February 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an Advisory Opinion detailing potential RESPA implications for companies that operate online mortgage and settlement service comparison platforms, as well...more
On January 18, the CFPB released an updated version of its Mortgage Servicing Examination Procedures, detailing the types of information examiners should gather when assessing whether servicers are complying with applicable...more
A&B ABstract: Mortgage assumptions – where a buyer assumes the existing mortgage loan of a seller – have fluctuated in popularity since the 1980s....more
As part of the Biden Administration’s stated focus on narrowing the racial gap in wealth and homeownership, federal agencies launched an Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE), with the goal...more
At an industry fair lending conference last week, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the CFPB, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) outlined fair lending priorities for their...more
On October 4, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on its website that the deadline to request initial forbearance for a COVID-19 hardship for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (HUD/FHA),...more
REMOVALS- Can I be removed from my home as a result of a foreclosure proceeding during the COVID-19 emergency? No. On March 19, 2020, New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy issued Executive Order 106. Under this order,...more
[co-author: John Ropiequet] The fair lending cases filed by Miami against four major mortgage lenders, reported in several previous Annual Surveys, came to a sudden, anticlimactic end when the city voluntarily dismissed...more
REMOVALS- Can I be removed from my home as a result of a foreclosure proceeding during the COVID-19 emergency? No. On March 19, 2020, New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy issued Executive Order 106, which suspended...more
Since the beginning of the year and the change in Presidential administrations, a number of relief measures granted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been extended. Below are updates regarding relief measures in place...more
Oh what a year it has been in the mortgage servicing world! In 2020, our COVID-19 Compliance Roundtable met weekly to discuss emerging compliance issues under the CARES Act, federal agency guidance, state laws and orders, and...more
On October 7, 2020, the CFPB announced that it was "provid[ing] clearer rules of the road for RESPA marketing service agreements" in the mortgage industry by rescinding its 2015 guidance regarding marketing services...more
On July 15, 2020, the CPFB filed a complaint in federal court against Townestone Financial, Inc. (Townestone) representing the first ever redlining complaint against a non-bank mortgage lender. ...more
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a joint statement concerning mortgage loan forbearances under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic...more
On May 12, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a joint COVID-19 mortgage and housing assistance...more