Affirming its commitment to the senior citizen population, on May 17, 2023, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) issued Mortgagee Letter 2023-10, implementing amendments to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) assignment claim submission criteria.
As a bit of background, a HECM is a reverse mortgage insured by the FHA. HECMs, as any reverse mortgage
On April 26, 2023, the CFPB issued an advisory opinion clarifying that a debt collector who brings or threatens to bring a foreclosure action to collect a time-barred mortgage debt may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and its implementing regulation. The CFPB also issued two related blog posts on the topic: CFPB
On March 31, 2023, the CFPB released its annual consumer complaints report. Although there was a significant increase in non-mortgage related complaints, the volume of mortgage-related complaints decreased compared to previous years. The CFPB contacted companies for review and response for approximately 23,600 (or 81%) of the 29,100 mortgage complaints they received in 2022.
FDIC-insured depository institutions seeking CRA credit opportunities may be eligible to apply for funding to further impact the distressed communities they serve. On March 31, 2023, the Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) opened its fiscal year 2023 funding applications for its Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program. This year’s program includes
Three years after it began, the presidentially declared COVID-19 national emergency is officially over. On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed H. J. Res. 7, officially ending the COVID-19 national emergency a month earlier than anticipated. For mortgage servicers who had been led to believe that the national emergency would remain in place for another
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued its final rule to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rule amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), introducing substantial data collection and reporting requirements for small business lenders and finance companies. In this blog post, we delve deeper
The Supreme Court has asked the solicitor general to weigh in on an issue that could affect lenders and borrowers alike: whether the National Bank Act (NBA) trumps state laws that require lenders to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts. The request, which follows the Supreme Court’s previous denial of a request to review a
In a surprising shift from its current position, Fannie Mae is expected to roll out a pilot program this spring that waives title insurance requirements for certain loans sold to Fannie Mae, according to a recent report from Politico. While the specifics of the plan have not been announced, this pilot program comes on
Less than three years after the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the CFPB’s appointment structure, the bureau again finds itself before the Court in what could prove the most consequential case for the financial services industry in years. Four months ago, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Community Financial Services Association of
The False Claims Act (FCA) continued to be a key tool in 2022 for the Justice Department and whistleblowers to bring suits against companies, including those in the financial services sector. While the focus stayed largely on the healthcare industry, the risk to corporations of huge financial penalties under the FCA remains. The number of