Compliance & Regulation

The first day after his appointment as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray indicated he intends to move aggressively to enforce the agency's expanded authority. He announced the launch of the agency's nonbank supervisory program and stated that the CFPB was already working on significant enforcement actions.

First, some good news: We understand that 350 MetLife Home Loan staffers are about to be made an employment offer. On top of that, other offers are being made to many of MLHL's high-performance loan officers. That's good news for the rank-and-file workers that make up this industry.

Here's a pop quiz: what financial services laws did Congress pass in 2011? Drawing a blank? Don't feel bad. We're hearing crickets, too.

The doors to the first chamber of justice in the federal court system have been shut in the faces of nonborrowing spouses in HECM transactions for the second and last time. Yet, their plight, foreclosures and evictions when their spouses die, remains.

JPMorgan Chase chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon suspects a "turn" in the housing market is getting closer but a recovery may still be years away.

What does the NLRB have in common with Lady Gaga? Overtime. And a lot of it. While Lady Gaga is being sued by a single personal assistant for almost $400,000 of overtime, the National Labor Relations Board is throwing out agreements designed to protect businesses from class action overtime suits.

Due to more stringent government loan requirements and increased oversight by regulators, small servicers have experienced problems with traditional subservicers. These problems include high delinquency ratios under Ginnie Mae, high FHA curtailments, low loss mitigation workout ratios and challenges with conveying properties to FHA.

Goldman Sachs this week asked a federal court in Los Angeles to dismiss a billion-dollar private label MBS related lawsuit brought against the firm by the National Credit Union Administration.

The Justice Department issued a critical legal opinion Thursday asserting that President Obama is allowed to make recess appointments despite pro-forma Senate sessions in which no business is conducted, effectively validating the appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

One of the joys of living in South Florida is spending New Year's Day at the beach. This year when walking along the shore I came across a sand crab making its way toward the water. My grandchildren were fascinated by the fact that the crab didn't walk forward, but sideways. Every time my grandchildren got close, the crab stuck its head into its shell, thereby making no progress at all.