The CFPB's latest Supervisory report highlights legal violations that were addressed by the bureau in the first half of 2021. CFPB director Rohit Chopra revealed that the bureau intends to continue to crack down on companies that conduct practices that are harmful to consumers.
“Today’s report reveals that irresponsible or mismanaged firms harmed Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will continue to supervise firms to halt harmful practices before they become widespread.”
The report first addresses mortgage servicers and found that some of them charged improper fees to borrowers enrolled in CARES Act forbearance.
“This past year, the CFPB prioritized mortgage servicing supervision due to the increase in borrowers applying for and receiving mortgage forbearance due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the report. “While the CARES Act prohibits mortgage servicers from imposing fees on consumers receiving CARES Act forbearance, CFPB examiners found that mortgage servicers still charged borrowers late fees and default-related fees. These illegal fees exacerbated the economic hardships experienced by struggling homeowners in 2021. Examiners observed that mortgage servicers failed to refund some of the fees until almost a year later.”
The CFPB found that servicers' response to some of these issues varied by company and addressed it in a report published on August 10.
The bureau also noted a number of fair lending violations in its highlights, including several violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by mortgage lenders.
“The examination team found that mortgage lenders discriminated against African American and female borrowers in the granting of pricing exceptions, compared to non-Hispanic white and male borrowers,” according to the report.
“Specifically, examiners found lenders lacked oversight and control over how mortgage loan officers granted pricing exceptions to customers. Examiners identified lenders with statistically significant disparities for incidences of pricing exceptions for African American and female applications compared to similar non-Hispanic white and male borrowers.”
