Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard has announced a $1,181,400 settlement with Pulte Home Corporation and Pulte Mortgage LLC, resolving the sState’s investigation into allegations that Pulte’s pre-qualification practices, earnest money deposit policies and Spanish-language marketing efforts violated Arizona’s consumer protection law. The settlement, in which no admission of fault or finding of liability is made, will be submitted to the Maricopa County Superior Court for final approval.Read more

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has announced 97 financial fraud victims have received $125,679.22 in restitution for taxes and insurance bills that went unpaid by defunct American Escrow, a Chicago-based company. In early 2009, angry homeowners from dozens of states flocked to the Internet to trade stories about what losing their escrow money meant for their families and to file complaints against the company.Read more

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) applauds the expected enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protections Act (HR 4173), which has passed the House and Senate and is likely to be signed by President Barack Obama this week. While the bill's financial reform and consumer protection provisions have been well documented, the act also includes housing provisions important to low-income households and communities.Read more

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) have announced a 35-state settlement, in which CitiFinancial agreed to remit a $1.25 million penalty. The agreement between state mortgage regulators and CitiFinancial was executed following an examination conducted by the Massachusetts Division of Banks to determine compliance with state and federal consumer protection laws.Read more

Federal action to exempt national banks from state anti-predatory lending laws resulted in more defaults and riskier lending compared to other banks, a study funded by the National State Attorneys General Program at Columbia Law School found. At the same time, the study found anti-predatory lending laws enacted by some to protect consumers from abusive and unfair mortgage practices saved many people from losing their homes to foreclosure.Read more

AllRegs, an information provider for the mortgage lending industry, has announced the approval of four continuing education courses by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry (NMLS). These new NMLS course approvals follow the approval of AllRegs’ Pre-Licensing course, the 20-Hour Mortgage Originator SAFE Comprehensive (Course Number 1013), on Aug. 17, 2009. AllRegs became an Approved Education Provider (#1400024) by the NMLS on July 7, 2009.

The following AllRegs courses have been approved for continuing education:Read more

It is now January, and our thoughts look back to the holidays as we are often side-tracked by many things this time of year. We are busy changing clocks, changing our wardrobe (well most of us anyway), and especially in our industry, changing our regulations and laws. The media does not have negative stories about us every five minutes, but our regulators have not forgotten how to get media attention using consumer protection as the focus.Read more

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), on behalf of its members, has released proposed guidance on reverse mortgage products. The guidance is designed to help financial institutions ensure that their risk management and consumer protection practices adequately address the compliance and reputation risks raised by reverse mortgage lending. The proposed guidance addresses the general features of reverse mortgage products, relevant legal requirements and consumer protection concerns raised by reverse mortgages.Read more

Consumer protection lawsuits were filed against four loan modification or “mortgage rescue” businesses, along with their officers, who are accused of deceiving Pennsylvania consumers seeking help modifying their mortgage loans. “Consumers struggling with high interest rates or large loan payments were drawn to these businesses by misleading ads, deceptive Web sites and false promises of ‘permanent changes’ to their mortgages,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said.Read more

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Board of Directors has approved a final rule implementing the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act). The rule has been posted on the FDIC's Web site, but will not be published in the Federal Register until the other agencies involved in this rulemaking complete their review and approval of the rule.Read more