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Holiday parties are back, but pre-COVID RESPA rules still apply
Posted Date: Friday, October 29, 2021
With the arrival of COVID-19 vaccinations, holiday parties may be making a very welcome return in some circles. Title agents and industry trade associations can show their appreciation to partners, affiliates and clients this holiday season through celebratory open houses or small gifts. However, there are some caveats. Mayer Brown LLP Partner Holly Spencer Bunting spoke to RESPA News about ways to market your company while remaining compliant.
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Chopra: ‘It’s great to be back’ at CFPB
Posted Date: Monday, October 18, 2021
New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra has publicly addressed his priorities to lead the agency. Chopra said he plans to continue the work acting CFPB Director Dave Uejio started.
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Maryland judge allows kickback case to proceed
Posted Date: Monday, October 18, 2021
A class action lawsuit accusing a lender of receiving illegal kickbacks in exchange for the assignment of business to a settlement services company may move forward. A group of borrowers filed a lawsuit against MBA Mortgage Services Inc. alleging claims for violations of RESPA and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
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DOJ settles sexual harassment suit against Arkansas Housing Authority
Posted Date: Monday, October 18, 2021
The White River Regional Housing Authority in Melbourne, Ark., has agreed to pay $70,000 to resolve a lawsuit alleging a former employee violated the Fair Housing Act by sexually harassing an applicant who sought a Housing Choice Voucher.
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Industry asks Congress to reject IRS reporting proposal
Posted Date: Monday, October 18, 2021
The National Association of Realtors, American Bankers Association, American Land Title Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions are among more than 100 trade associations who called on Congress to reject the proposed IRS reporting requirement under consideration in the budget reconciliation package.
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HUD settles discrimination claims against New Hampshire mobile home park
Posted Date: Monday, October 18, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has settled disability discrimination claims against a Rochester, N.H., mobile home park. HUD alleged the owners refused to make a reasonable accommodation from their age restrictions to permit the homebuyer’s son, a person with severe disabilities who requires special care, to live with his mother.
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Seila Law abandoning CID battle
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
The California law firm responsible for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau being declared unconstitutional has given up its civil investigative demand (CID) fight against the agency. The bureau is seeking a CID from Seila Law concerning, among other things, information on the fees the company charges consumers for debt relief and marketing methods for debt relief or other services.
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CFPB sues reverse-mortgage lender
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed a complaint and proposed consent order alleging a lender used inflated and deceptive home estimates to lure consumers into taking out reverse mortgages. The CFPB is seeking consumer redress, a civil money penalty and a requirement the lender begin implementing a comprehensive compliance plan.
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Latinos driving demand for real estate
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
In 2014, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals established the Hispanic Wealth Project with the goal of tripling Hispanic household wealth by 2024. One of the project’s goals--to increase the Hispanic homeownership rate to at least 50 percent--looks likely to occur even earlier.
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HUD settles same-sex couple claim
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved a conciliation agreement between the owners of an apartment complex in Tucson, Ariz., and a same-sex African American couple residing at the complex. The agreement resolves allegations the owners and manager of the complex discriminated based on sex and race when they failed to address the couple’s complaints of neighbor harassment.
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NAR: Housing affordability starting to improve
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
The housing affordability problem is showing signs of improvement. At the national level, housing affordability increased for the second consecutive month in August compared to the previous month, according to the National Association of Realtors.
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Financial Services Committee asks Biden to pass housing provisions
Posted Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021
The House Financial Services Committee is urging President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Maj. Leader Chuck Schumer to include housing provisions in the White House’s plan to create jobs, cut taxes and lower costs for working families by increasing taxes on the wealthiest people and large corporations.
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Florida borrowers allege servicer failed to timely disburse hazard insurance premium
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
A pair of Florida borrowers alleged their servicer did not timely disburse the hazard insurance premium from their escrow account and failed to properly respond to their loss mitigation and force-placed insurance concerns. The servicer argued the case should be dismissed because it properly responded to the borrowers’ notice of errors and requests for information.
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GAO recommends fixes for HUD’s ‘outdated’ technology
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) relies on outdated information technology infrastructure (IT) and manual processes to insure a portfolio of single-family mortgages worth over $1 trillion, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO noted HUD has made several unsuccessful attempts to modernize IT in the past, leaving it dependent on legacy systems.
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DFPI report shows decrease in PACE financing
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
A new report from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation shows a sharp decrease in Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. The 2020 annual report includes unaudited data compiled from finance lenders, broker, and PACE program administrators licensed under the California Financing Law.
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FinCEN extends FBAR deadline for disaster victims
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has extended the deadline to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) for the 2020 calendar year. Victims of Hurricane Ida and other recent disasters now have until Dec. 31, 2021, to file FBARs.
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NAHRO elects two new leaders
Posted Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) has new leadership. The new president and senior vice president were announced at NAHRO’s Online National Conference and Exhibition.
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Senate confirms Chopra as CFPB director
Posted Date: Friday, October 1, 2021
Rohit Chopra is a former Federal Trade Commission commissioner who is closely aligned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and who served as the bureau’s first student loan ombudsman.
The Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Chopra, who was instrumental in setting up the bureau following the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank Act authorizing its creation. Chopra, who served as the CFPB’s first student loan ombudsman, was nominated by then President-elect Biden in January.
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Connecticut borrower sues servicer over alleged racial harassment
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
A Black borrower from Connecticut claimed her servicer allowed property inspectors to repeatedly harass her due to her race after she fell behind on her mortgage. The plaintiff recently sued the servicer for alleged violations of RESPA, the Fair Housing Act, trespass, negligent supervision of employees and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.
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CFPB releases consumer-complaint report
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released its first in-depth report analyzing complaint submission patterns by U.S. Census tract. The findings were based on the nearly 1 million consumer complaints submitted to the CFPB between 2018 and 2020.
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FinCEN launches process for new antiquities regulations
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to solicit public comment on a range of questions related to the implementation of amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act regarding trading antiquities.The ANPRM is the first in a series of regulatory actions FinCEN will undertake to implement Section 6110 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which became law on Jan. 1, 2021.
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DFPI sanctions debt collector under CCFPL
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has issued its first enforcement action against a debt collector and debt buyer for allegedly violating the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL). The DFPI’s action alleged the company unlawfully threatened to sue consumers and garnish their wages and also engaged in “debt parking.”
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DOJ settles disability-based discrimination lawsuit
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
The developer and owners of eight senior living complexes in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee have agreed to settle claims for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to build properties with required accessible features for people with disabilities.
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HUD, FHFA clarify Freddie Mac’s policies on group homes
Posted Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency have clarified Freddie Mac’s policies regarding the eligibility of group homes for the secondary mortgage market. The agencies said they hope to encourage lenders to extend credit for such mortgages to provide more community-based living opportunities for persons with disabilities.
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CFPB sues software company
Posted Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit accusing a California-based software company and its owner of providing assistance to illegal credit-repair businesses. The bureau alleged the company violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Consumer Financial Protection Act.
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New CFPB advisory committee members named
Posted Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau acting Director Dave Uejio has appointed new members to the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) and three other advisory councils who will work with the agency on a broad range of consumer financial issues and emerging market trends. The CAB is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act to advise and consult with the bureau’s director on a variety of consumer financial issues.
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Existing-home sales drop
Posted Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021
After two straight months of increases, existing-home sales decreased in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. Each of the four major U.S. regions experienced declines on both a month-over-month and a year-over-year basis.
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OCC seeks comment on CRA rule
Posted Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is soliciting comments on proposed rules to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule issued in 2020 and replace it with rules adopted jointly by the federal banking agencies in 1995. This action facilitates the ongoing interagency work to modernize the CRA regulatory framework and promote consistency for all insured depository institutions.
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ACES reports decline in critical defect rate
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
The critical defect rate is down in the Regulatory Compliance and Loan Documentation categories, proving lenders are self-correcting and stabilizing their operations.
That’s according to the latest Mortgage QC Industry Trends Report from ACES Quality Management.
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CFPB studies renters' financial stability
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a report warning that millions of renters and their families may suffer previously avoided economic harms of the COVID-19 pandemic as federal and state relief programs end. The report compared homeowners to renters, who make up 30 percent of U.S. households.
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Waters urges Biden to make FHFA nomination
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters is calling on President Joe Biden to nominate acting Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Acting Director Sandra Thompson the permanent leader of the agency. “Appointed on June 23 as acting director, Ms. Thompson has needed little time to show this nation how uniquely qualified she is to serve at the helm of FHFA,” Waters said.
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HUD charges Missouri housing providers with discrimination
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged St. Charles, Mo. housing providers with housing discrimination for allegedly refusing to rent an apartment to a prospective tenant because he has two children. As a result, the complainant said he was forced to rent a more expensive unit.
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HUD makes $180 million in COVID-19 supplemental funding available
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs is opening a new application period to allow owners of multifamily properties to apply for more than $180 million in supplemental operating funds to support expenses for protecting residents and staff from COVID-19. The COVID-19 Supplemental Payments help address operating cost increases incurred by owners to prevent, prepare for, or respond to the pandemic at their properties.
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FinCEN to host digital identity workshop
Posted Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) will host a special virtual FinCEN Innovation Hours Program on Oct. 14 focusing on the important role of digital identity to enhance financial services inclusion while supporting efforts to counter illicit activity. FinCEN encourages participation by companies developing technologies, solutions, or partnerships supporting the broad adoption of digital identity for multiple purposes within the financial services industry.
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