Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on Junk Fees and New York's Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on HUD's Disparate Impact Rule - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Title Insurance and Your Transaction
Law Brief®: Robert Wolf, Alexander Tiktin and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Continuing Foreclosure/Eviction Moratorium
Credit Eco to Go Podcast - Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
On May 14, 2025, Governor Brian Kemp signed Georgia House Bill 15 into law. House Bill 15, which will take effect on July 1, 2025, will implement several major changes to Georgia’s residential mortgage licensing law, the...more
On May 14, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 15 revising various banking and finance provisions. The bill revises procedures for incorporators of credit unions. It also addressed licensure requirements for money...more
In January 2025, the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation (the “OFR”) issued a guidance stating that assignees of residential mortgage loans, including certain passive trusts, were required to hold a Maryland mortgage...more
In a highly anticipated and welcome development, on April 22, 2025, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed into law the Maryland Secondary Market Stability Act of 2025 (emergency measures HB 1516 and its companion SB 1026) with...more
In the previous 3 articles of this 4-part series I identified and explained three types of fatal flaws in the 2023 CRA rule: 1. The unreliable and sometimes misleading performance ratings based on unrealistic assessment...more
On March 31, the CFPB announced it published the 2024 HMDA Modified Loan Application Register data on the FFIEC’s HMDA Platform. The data, sourced from nearly 5,000 HMDA filers, included loan-level information to assess...more
On March 24, the OCC published its Mortgage Metrics Report for the fourth quarter of 2024. The Report analyzed the performance of first-lien residential mortgage loans serviced by seven national banks in the U.S. As of...more
AT A GLANCE - In response to market concerns regarding licensing guidance for assignees of certain residential mortgage loans and installment loans released by the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation in January, that...more
On February 14, a divided Second Circuit panel upheld a 2016 jury verdict which found that a mortgage lender violated, among other laws, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) by engaging in “reverse redlining” when it...more
Financial institutions that purchase mortgage loans in Maryland, including securitization trusts and other secondary market purchasers, face a new requirement to obtain a state license. The Maryland Office of Financial...more
On January 10, 2025, the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation issued emergency regulations revised to clarify that “passive trusts” holding residential mortgage loans must obtain a Mortgage Lender License and if the trusts...more
Led by the California Mortgage Bankers Association, five lenders have made commitments to provide mortgage relief for the victims of the California wildfires....more
What Happened? On June 20, 2024, a group of federal regulators published a rule addressing for the use of automated valuation models (AVMs) in mortgage origination and secondary market transactions....more
On April 26, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2024-06, announcing changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) for purchases (H4P loans), a mortgage program...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending race-based admissions at colleges and universities could have a ripple effect on unrelated fields. Our Financial Services & Products Group explores how the Harvard decision could change...more
The pace of legislative activity from this year’s current session can make it hard to stay abreast of new laws. The Consumer Finance ABstract’s “Consumer Finance State Roundup” is intended to provide a brief overview of...more
The 2021 increase to California’s homestead exemption to up to $600,000 stands to change the legal and economic relationship of guarantors with their lenders and vendors who make loans or sell goods or services on...more
Mortgage lenders tend to pay a lot of attention to the real property securing their loans, as they should. Before the loan is made, lenders scrutinize the property to evaluate whether its fair market value will support the...more
Washington has joined the ranks of states requiring licensing of mortgage servicing rights holders and added tougher rules for recordkeeping, compliance, and offshoring activities. Our Financial Services & Products Group...more
In January 2014, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. (“Lehman”) settled claims filed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac arising out of each of their purchases of mortgage loans from Lehman and its affiliates. Lehman then sought to...more
The CFPB has issued its monthly complaint report and is shining its spotlight on mortgage products. The Monthly Complaint Report provides a high level snap shot of trends in consumer complaints, using a three month rolling...more
JPMorgan and other asset managers are pushing hard for a new type of ETF that “mimics active strategies but keeps its investments secret.” The concept hasn’t yet been embraced by the SEC, though the heavy-hitters looking to...more
On the heels of Deutsche Bank’s $7.2 billion deal, Credit Suisse has finalized the terms of its own MBS-related settlement. The Swiss bank will pay $5.3 billion to resolve claims that it misled investors about the standards...more
In December, the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions issued a memorandum interpreting the Mortgage Licensing and Regulation Act (Ky. Rev. Stat. Ch. 286.8) as requiring master servicers and sub...more