The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has signed a conciliation agreement with Bank of America, N.A., and one of its loan officers to resolve allegations of familial status and sex discrimination. The bank and Loan Officer Hung Tran refused to approve a residential mortgage for a couple until after one of the applicants returned to work from maternity leave, according to HUD.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently submitted its annual report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The report found some supervised debt collection entities have reported an increase in consumer contacts and payments. Several of these entities attributed the increased performance to more consumers being at home, reduced spending and increased liquidity provided by pandemic-assistance programs.
A New Orleans lending operation paid “illegal kickbacks” to a local real estate brokerage by charging artificially high rents for office space, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). In addition, it paid “illegal referral fees” through a lead generation service, the FDIC said in its most recent Community Reinvestment Act Performance Evaluation of the bank. Sterbcow Law Group’s Managing Attorney Marx Sterbcow offered advice to save other lenders and brokerages from being on the wrong side of the headlines. Read on for details.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a rule to protect survivors of human trafficking by preventing consumer reporting agencies from including negative information resulting from abuse. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the Federal Register on April 8. The public comment period will close on May 9, 2022.
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