Mislabeling by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has exaggerated the number of consumer complaints the bureau received regarding mortgage brokers and it should be corrected, according to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau disclosed that it has received 50,000 consumer complaints about mortgage lenders, brokers and servicers since November 2011. And the bureau provided public access to its
Of the 50,547 mortgage complaints, some 3,564 were labeled “application, originator and mortgage broker.”
After reviewing the complaints, NAMB discovered that only 22 of the complaints involved mortgage brokers and 2,745 actually involved banks, according to NAMB president Donald Frommeyer.
“In reviewing the information on the current Consumer Complaint Database, it seems that the mortgage broker is again being thrown into a category with application, originator and mortgage brokers,” Frommeyer said. “I would think that mortgage brokers would be in a category separate from the other two items.”
NAMB government affairs committee chairman Richard Bettencourt noted that banks, mortgage banking companies and mortgage brokerage firms are all considered originators.
“The data released by the CFPB shows that mortgage brokers received the least amount of complaints of any origination channel,” Bettencourt said.
CFPB did not respond to requests for comment about NAMB’s claims.
