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Greg Pipes assists banks, mortgage originators and servers, and other financial service providers with examinations, investigations, and enforcement actions initiated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other federal and state regulators. His practice focuses on helping clients navigate all aspects of the regulatory examination and enforcement process. Greg also helps clients assess the impact of new rules and regulations and adapt to changes in the regulatory environment.

On Wednesday, July 10, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its long-awaited and much anticipated proposal to amend Regulation X. As expected, the proposal focuses primarily on default servicing requirements and would impose an entirely new framework for regulating how loss mitigation is handled in the mortgage servicing industry. Other topics are

As we all hit the grocery store for that forgotten cranberry sauce and send a few last urgent work emails, we hope everyone is able to be with friends and family this Thanksgiving. Here at Bradley, we are counting our blessings and looking back at another remarkable year. We are thankful for being able to

The CFPB’s New COVID-19 Procedural Safeguard Rules Pose Significant Compliance Challenges for Mortgage ServicersJust two short months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced its COVID-19 mortgage servicing final rule, the effective date of August 31, 2021, is here. As we noted in our detailed breakdown of the final rule and corresponding webinar, the final rule poses new risks and challenges for mortgage servicers attempting to

Detailed Breakdown of the CFPB’s COVID-19 Mortgage Servicing Final RuleWith the release of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s COVID-19 mortgage servicing final rule and an August 31, 2021, effective date that will be here before we know it, the race is on for servicers to digest the law’s new requirements and prohibitions and then implement them. This will not be an easy task.

As

CFPB Releases COVID-19 Mortgage Servicing Final RuleOn June 28 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its much-anticipated mortgage servicing final rule related to COVID-19. This rulemaking amends Regulation X and, as expected, largely tracks the proposal that the Bureau issued in early April 2021 and that we wrote about shortly thereafter. The new rules will become effective on August 31,

GSE Deferral Programs Continue to Pose Risk for Mortgage ServicersIn mid May 2020, we highlighted that the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) COVID-19 payment deferral programs put mortgage servicers at risk of violating some of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Mortgage Servicing Rules in Regulation X. When originally introduced, the GSEs’ COVID-19 payment deferral programs seemed to require servicers to offer a

NYDFS’s New (and Expanded) Servicer Vendor Management ExpectationsOriginally proposed by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in 2019 and constituting what the Mortgage Bankers Association has described as “the first major update to Part 419 since its adoption almost 10 years ago,” the new Part 419 of Title 3 of NYDFS regulations covers a range of significant issues impacting

CFPB Issues Interim Final Rule to Enable COVID-19 Payment Deferral OptionsOn May 14, 2020, shortly after the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac COVID-19 payment deferral options were announced, we warned mortgage servicers about the legal risks associated with offering payment deferral programs to borrowers impacted by COVID-19. A little over a month later, on June 23, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an

Can Mortgage Servicers Legally Offer the GSEs’ COVID-19 Payment Deferral Options?On Wednesday, May 13, 2020, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveiled new retention workout options that were jointly developed and “specifically designed to help borrowers impacted by a hardship related to COVID-19 return their mortgage to a current status.” The government-sponsored enterprises’ (GSEs) highly anticipated new COVID-19 payment deferral will allow servicers to defer up

CFPB Quietly and Proactively Acts on Its Revised CID PolicyThe Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced that it is adopting a new policy regarding Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs). Going forward, Director Kathleen Kraninger has committed to providing more information to the entity or individual that is the recipient of the CID. This will be accomplished through more specific notifications of purpose, which will