Compliance & Regulation

Federal regulators must levy fines against residential servicers under their purview to show there are real consequences for their "severe misconduct," according to Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin.

New York Fed President William Dudley stressed the need to take forceful action to aid the real estate market, which has been a drag on the economy, but stopped short of offering a silver bullet solution, in a speech before the New Jersey Bankers Association Friday.

After months of waiting as their counterparts began examining banks, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's nonbank supervision team began the enormous task Thursday of overseeing the rest of the consumer financial sector.

On Dec. 22, 2011, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentences of Terrance "Terry" and Sonya "Cheri" Tucker, a Thousand Oaks couple who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a real estate scheme that cheated homebuyers and investors.

Advocates for Consumer Affairs, a compliance and risk management firm that audits mortgage loans nationwide, said it plans to concentrate their efforts to make sure homeowners receive loans that are enforceable from financial institutions.

Many community banks are looking to residential mortgage lending as one of the ways to increase their profit margins in the era of Dodd-Frank, notes a compliance expert at a banking industry technology provider.

The battle over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving from Congress to the courts.

President Obama followed his recess appointment of Richard Cordray with a personal visit Friday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which he called "one of the most important agencies for people that there is."

Neil Barofsky is not letting the Obama administration off the hook.

It's a distinction that doesn't portray the mortgage business in a very good light. But it's a milestone nonetheless: The national Loan Modification Scam Database has now collected more than 20,000 complaints.