A New World for Mortgage Banking – What You Need to Know About the CFPB’s Final Mortgage Servicing Rules
On August 29, the DC Attorney General’s office announced settlements with four title insurance companies over their widespread use of illegal kickbacks in violation of DC’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA). Under the...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
After a brief respite, Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) is back on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) enforcement radar. On August 17, 2023, the CFPB issued two parallel consent...more
On August 17, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had taken action against a residential mortgage loan originator that provided illegal incentives to real estate brokers and agents in...more
The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act prohibits mortgage loan originators from offering incentives to other companies in exchange for referring homebuyers to them for mortgage loans. The Bureau alleged that the...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ended a more than decadelong hiatus since the last formal guidance regarding Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act on Feb. 7 by issuing its advisory opinion aimed at...more
In Brasko v. Howard Bank, 2022 WL 951771 (D. Md. Mar. 29, 2022), a district court recently certified a subclass of residential mortgage borrowers who alleged that First Mariner Bank, a predecessor of Howard Bank, violated...more
In Kallai v. Jatola Homes, a recent decision under Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Services Procedure Act (RESPA), a federal district court judge in Ohio ruled that class plaintiffs’ RESPA allegations were sufficient...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB ) rescinded Bulletin 2015-05, RESPA Compliance and Marketing Services Agreements on October 7, 2020, stating that the bulletin did not provide the regulatory clarity necessary...more
The Eastern District of California recently granted partial summary judgment to a class of plaintiffs suing a reinsurer and related entities with respect to a reinsurance arrangement regarding private mortgage insurance that...more
In a significant action, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has abruptly rescinded a 2015 compliance bulletin concerning marketing services agreements (MSAs) while also issuing RESPA Section 8 (referral fee...more
The CFPB recently issued Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing the referral fee and fee splitting prohibitions under Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). The CFPB also rescinded its...more
On March 13, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected plaintiffs’ claim in a class action under Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), which imposes a broad prohibition against referral fees or...more
In 2005 and 2006, Christopher Blake and James Orkis took out mortgages from JP Morgan to buy homes. Then in 2013, they filed a class action against JP Morgan under the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act (RESPA),...more
A federal district court recently refused to dismiss a complaint alleging that a real estate marketing company operated its “co-marketing program” among real-estate agents and mortgage lenders in a manner that violated the...more
On December 7, 2018, a federal court in Maryland issued an important ruling in a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”) case (“Baehr”), granting a defense motion for summary judgment. The court dismissed the action...more
A federal district court has dismissed with prejudice a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) class action filed against JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. and related entities on statute of limitations grounds a year after...more
Following Borders & Borders PLC’s (Borders) successful summary judgment motion last summer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) filed a motion for reconsideration with the federal district court in...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) has been an agency under fire. Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has begun to institute significant changes at the Bureau. And last year, a panel of the D.C. Circuit...more
Following nearly three years of litigation, the D.C. Circuit handed down a 7 to 3 ruling in PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The two hundred fifty page opinion addressed not only the constitutional...more
Through its recent en banc decision in PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the D.C. Circuit reinstated the holding of the three-judge panel regarding the safe harbor provision in Section 8(c) of the Real Estate...more
The suit arose out of an arrangement where lenders would refer borrowers to (now-defunct) Triad Guaranty Insurance Company (Triad) to obtain private mortgage insurance. The lender-affiliated captive insurance company would...more
It’s been over a year since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) turned the real estate settlement services industry on its head by announcing in its first ever administrative appeal that Section 8(c) of the Real...more
On July 12, 2017, a federal district court in Kentucky issued a summary judgment ruling for the defense in the ongoing Borders & Borders case brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). In this...more
A federal district court recently ruled against the CFPB in a long-standing case under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) involving a Louisville, Kentucky law firm Borders & Borders, PLC (Borders). In the...more