An article published by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on June 1, 2016 highlights a post-housing crisis trend towards jumbo mortgages within the mortgage market. The authors note that jumbo mortgages - home loans for amounts above $417,000 for most markets - allow lenders to satisfy one post-crisis mandate to take fewer risks within their portfolios, [...]
The Fidelity Bank, based in North Carolina, entered into a HUD-approved conciliation agreement with Fair Housing Project/Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc., on April 23, 2016. The agreement requires the bank to earmark $500,000 or more per year for two years and to use those funds to make investments and community development loans in majority/minority census [...]
On April 1, 2016, the CFPB published its 2015 Consumer Response Annual Report. This annual report summarizes trends the CFPB has identified from 271,600 complaints that it accepted from financial product consumers during 2015. These complaint data can be a useful source of insight for banks and lenders to identify general areas that require attention [...]
First Federal Bank of Kansas City has agreed to a $2.8 million settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve allegations of redlining in African-American neighborhoods. As part of the conciliation agreement, First Federal agreed to originate $2.5 million in loans in majority African-American census tracts over a three-year period. The settlement also [...]
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file specifications for 2017 and 2018 are now available for download on the Resources for HMDA Filers page on the CFPB's website at:www.consumerfinance.gov/hmda/for-filers. Of note, the file format is being changed from a fixed field file to a delimited file format beginning with files submitted for 2017. The 2018 file [...]
On February 2, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced a $21.9 million dollar settlement with the Toyota Motor Credit Corporation. According to the CFPB and the DOJ, Toyota Motor Credit policy, which gives auto dealerships discretion in how much interest rate markup they pass along to consumers, resulted in higher rates [...]
The Justice Department reached a settlement with Massachusett-based Sage Bank over allegations that the mortgage lender violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). According to a November 30 complaint and proposed consent order, DOJ alleged that Sage Bank engaged “in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of [...]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its fall 2015 Supervisory Highlights Report. The report calls attention to alleged illegal practices in various sectors of the financial services industry, including debt collection, student loan servicing, mortgage origination and servicing, and consumer reporting. According to the report, the CFPB’s supervisory actions resulted in more than $107 million in restitution [...]
On October 15, 2015, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized its new rule that changes the data and reporting requirements of financial institutions that report their mortgage data under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Under the new rule, which is effective on January 1, 2018, HMDA reporters must include several new variables for [...]
On September 21, 2015, the City of Oakland, California filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking punitive damages from Wells Fargo for alleged violations under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The complaint accuses Wells Fargo of discriminatory practices by steering minority borrowers into high-cost mortgages despite being qualified for lower cost options (Reuters, 9/22/2015): Oakland's lawsuit [...]