Consumer complaints in all major categories saw double-digit declines in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside the CFPB. Total gripes filed by the public with the CFPB dropped 11.4 percent from 2Q18 to 3Q18, mainly driven by an 18.9 percent sequential decline in home mortgage complaints. Complaints regarding credit cards dipped 11.4 percent, bank account problems were down 10.8 percent and ...

The CFPB recently settled with Bluestem, Eden Prairie, MN, over allegations that the group of firms unfairly delayed payment transfers to third-party debt buyers. The settlement will require the companies to pay a civil money penalty of $200,000. The CFPB alleged that the Bluestem companies, between 2013 and 2016, delayed forwarding payments for more than 31 days in 18,000 instances. In 3,500 of those instances, Bluestem allegedly delayed [Includes four briefs] ...

Lawmakers who scheduled a hearing about a month ago to discuss oversight of the Federal Housing Finance Agency instead found themselves questioning FHFA Director Mel Watt about sexual harassment claims by one of his employees. During the day-long House Financial Services Committee hearing, which included his accuser Simone Grimes, FHFA Inspector General Laura Wertheimer, and the GSE CEOs, Watt fought back against the allegations. He painted his relationship with Grimes as a mentor/mentee-type interaction and questioned the committee’s decision to even allow Grimes to use that forum when she has a lawsuit pending. But Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, who admitted to having a close friendship with Watt, said, “It’s a new...

Ginnie Mae assured the mortgage industry that it would accept so-called VA orphan loans as long as they satisfy the terms of corrective legislation passed by the House Financial Services Committee recently. “As long as the mortgage loan complies with the law, we will accept it and put our guarantee on it,” said an agency spokesperson in response to an Inside FHA/VA Lending inquiry. Ginnie’s assurance provides certainty to a subset of VA loans that have been in limbo since June because they could not be delivered into Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. Lawmakers responded to industry calls for a legislative fix last week by voting overwhelmingly to approve H.R. 6737, the “Protect Affordable Mortgages for Veterans Act of 2018.” Introduced by Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-NY, the bill would eliminate the seasoning requirements in the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act reform legislation, which conflicted with ...

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte has paid $149.5 million to the federal government to settle allegations of misconduct in connection with its role as the independent outside auditor of defunct FHA lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. The settlement amount includes $115 million in restitution paid to the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Aug. 13, 2018, according to the HUD inspector general. The rest of the payment went to the Department of Justice, which brought the charges on behalf of the government. Deloitte admitted neither to any liability nor to wrongdoing. TBW was an FHA direct endorsement lender and a Ginnie Mae-approved mortgage-backed securities issuer and servicer. It originated, underwrote, acquired and sold mortgages to Freddie Mac and other investors, which used the loans to support MBS issuance or held them as investments. In its heyday, TBW was one of the ...

A Democratic lawmaker on the House Financial Services Committee is recommending that the CFPB include financial technology (fintech) companies in its complaint database to protect small business borrowers from discrimination. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-MO, last year launched a survey to study the use of automated algorithms in loan applications in order to determine whether fintechs protect companies from unintentional discrimination. Many fintech lenders argue ...

It has been more than three years since FHA introduced a new streamlined process of identifying loan defects and their severity to minimize or avoid enforcement action and hefty penalties under the False Claims Act. Despite calls by the mortgage industry to improve and clarify the process – the Single-Family Loan Quality Assessment methodology or “defect taxonomy” – the FHA has yet to make a move to meet industry demands for more detailed defect taxonomy. Contacted for an update on the defect taxonomy, a Housing and Urban Development spokesperson said simply, “Nothing to report on this.” An outgrowth of lender concern over the government’s indiscriminate use of the FCA to prosecute mortgage fraud and recover FHA losses, the defect taxonomy establishes nine categories of loan defects in loans it endorses. The nine defect categories replaced the 99 loan defect codes that were ...

Approximately 11.5 percent of FHA single-family mortgages were in some stages of delinquency in July, 26 basis points down from the previous month, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of FHA delinquency rates. At the end of July, FHA servicers were servicing 7,901,090 FHA loans, with top servicer Wells Fargo accounting for 19.2 percent. The share of FHA mortgages that were 30-59 days past due, which is considered early-stage delinquency, was 4.8 percent at the end of July. The share of FHA loans 60-89 days delinquent was 1.6 percent while the share of seriously delinquent loans in July was 4.02 percent. ... [Chart]

An undetermined defect is causing the Department of Veterans Affairs’ loan servicing reporting system to spit out duplicate bill-of-collection transaction numbers. The VA Home Loan Guaranty staff is collaborating with the Administrative Loan and Accounting Center (ALAC) to work around the issue. The resolution to correct the defect in the VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) application is scheduled to be included in the 18.4 VALERI release on Dec. 8, 2018. VALERI is in the first phase of a three-year project to convert from a system for reporting and storing servicing data to an end-to-end mortgage-processing platform. The VA also has issued a number of servicing alerts and reminders. Liquidation appraisal fees in Colorado will increase in certain counties effective Sept. 1, 2018, so that all counties will have the same fee per property type. The fee changes will be updated and reflected on the ...

A Treasury Department report called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish clear standards for determining which mortgage-related violations and loan defects the Department of Justice should pursue under the False Claims Act. The report also recommended that DOJ ensure that materiality, for purposes of the FCA, is linked to the standards of the agency administering the program to which the claim has been filed. Furthermore, it urged both HUD and the DOJ to work together to clarify the process by which they can jointly resolve claims. The report was issued pursuant to President Trump’s February 2017 executive order establishing his administration’s policy to regulate the U.S. financial system according to a set of core principles. Both HUD and the DOJ have been successful in using the statute to prosecute FHA lenders who knowingly commit fraud or make ...