What we’ve learned over the past couple of years is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is taking its enforcement role seriously. If it believes a company has violated consumer financial laws, it will take action. The penalties the bureau seeks are extensive and in some cases are so high they could put a company out of business. Enforcement actions under the CFPB are of a different breed than those that came from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when it regulated RESPA. RESPA News spoke to Gary Cunningham, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary at HUD, about what is different now that the bureau has RESPA enforcement authority.
On its website, the CFPB provides access to its administrative adjudication docket, which lists some of the enforcement actions the bureau has taken since it opened its doors in 2011. In addition to those actions, the CFPB filed complaints in federal district courts in relation to captive reinsurance, RESPA Section 8 violations (specifically alleged sham affiliated business arrangements (AfBAs)), unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices, loan originator compensation, payday lending and mortgage servicing.
The bureau has extensive enforcement authority. It has the ability to file its own civil suits. It has a plethora of penalties available to it that include limiting the future actions of companies or individuals, disgorgement of funds and civil money penalties that could reach up to $1 million a day. Its powers are much broader than those that HUD has, and the bureau is using them to their fullest extent.
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