Enforcement

The CFPB's recent freeze on collecting any personally identifiable information from companies it supervises is slowing investigations and could ultimately cripple the agency's enforcement function — and that may be the point.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is asking acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney to account for recent directives limiting agency staff members’ ability to access or acquire electronic data, saying the moves hamper critical agency operations.

The Denver judge, who last spring ruled that former foreclosure king Larry Castle and his law firm did not violate state laws designed to protect consumers against fraudulent charges, was biased and made several missteps during the three-week bench trial leading up to his decision, the Colorado attorney general's office asserts in its appeal of the verdict.

PHH Corp. agreed to a $45 million settlement to resolve allegations from 49 states and the District of Columbia that it engaged in "foreclosure process abuses" involving "inconsistent signatures" in its servicing business from 2009 to 2012. The settlement comes as the nonbank mortgage company continues its legal challenge to a separate regulatory action by the CFPB.

A Stratford, Conn., man faces up to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

PHH Mortgage was the first mortgage servicer to be fined by the New York Department of Financial Services for failing to maintain a "zombie" property.

A Milwaukee landlord who continued to buy foreclosed properties at auction after being sanctioned, must pay $64,550 in municipal court fines that he has been effectively dodging as far back as 2009, a Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge ordered.

Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has charged a Milton, Mass., man with using a fraudulent house-flipping scheme to convince friends and investors to lend him money that he then used on restaurants, hotels and groceries.

Movement Mortgage will pay $1.1 million in penalties and customer refunds to settle charges by California regulators it serviced loans without a state license and for collecting unearned interest.

Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan said the likelihood is waning that the lender will settle a U.S. mortgage-bond probe before the end of the year as he'd hoped, though it's well-capitalized to handle a settlement.