Collection of Post-Payment Interest Gets Wells Fargo Bank in Trouble
September 7, 2018
A federal district court in San Francisco preliminarily approved a $30 million class-action settlement resolving allegations that Wells Fargo Bank improperly collected post-payment interest on FHA-insured mortgages without notice to the borrowers. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of the settlement on Aug. 22. Class members include plaintiff Vana Fowler and other borrowers who had an FHA loan originated between June 1, 1996, and Jan. 20, 2015. Plaintiffs allege that Wells Fargo continued to collect interest on FHA loans they had already fully repaid without sending them proper notice. HUD allows lenders to collect interest if the borrower repays the full principal on his or her FHA loan after the first of the month. This means that banks can still collect interest through the end of the month even though the ...