Enforcement

Mortgage lenders and servicers weary from a raft of regulatory changes in recent years may see some respite in 2016, but still face some tough issues ahead. Here's the most pressing.

The Morgan Stanley settlement follows a similar agreement with Barclays Capital in October that resulted in a recovery of $325 million.

Calvin Hagins, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's deputy assistant director for originations, warned mortgage lenders this week about four contentious areas that its examiners will zero in on next year.

A former Jefferies & Co. managing director accused of lying to customers about bond prices had his fraud conviction overturned in the latest blow to the government’s effort to hold individuals accountable for alleged wrongdoing on Wall Street.

Poppi Metaxas, the former chief executive of Gateway Bank in Oakland, Calif., was sentenced to 18 months in prison for perpetrating a scheme involving mortgages.

Add retail customers to the list of groups raising concerns about possible high-pressure product-sales tactics at Wells Fargo; many of them are considering jumping ship in response, according to a new survey of customer attitudes at big banks. However, Wells' rivals shouldn't celebrate — they are at risk of losing customers, too, for a variety of reasons.

Sage Bank in Lowell, Mass., has agreed to pay about $1.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations of discrimination against minorities in mortgage lending.

Broadway Financial Corp. in Los Angeles has been released from an enforcement action requiring it to improve its corporate governance.

Three county governments in metro Atlanta have sued Bank of America for engaging in the practice of equity stripping, where the bank targeted minority borrowers with high-interest mortgage loans.

The New York Department of Financial Services has ordered NewDay Financial to surrender its New York State license, as the fallout continues from its exam-cheating scandal.

Mortgage One in Sterling Heights, Mich., has signed a conciliation agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding alleged disability discrimination.

Joshua Banschick, a mortgage bond trader at JPMorgan Chase & Co., has returned to work nearly a year after the bank placed him on leave amid government probes into that market.

The former chief executive of a Nebraska bank has been convicted by a federal jury for lying to investors and regulators about considerable losses tied to risky commercial real estate investments.

Former Rabobank trader Anthony Allen, found guilty for rigging a key financial benchmark, struck jurors in Manhattan as evasive, deceptive and "shaky," as one of them put it after delivering the verdict.

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $81.6 million to settle a federal investigation into its alleged failure to properly notify homeowners of increases in their mortgage payments.

PHH Corp. swung to a loss in the third quarter, as the mortgage servicer and originator set aside reserves to cover the potential cost of regulatory investigations.

A New Jersey woman and her parents were found guilty of a sophisticated mortgage equity fraud scheme by a Pennsylvania federal jury.

A Georgia real estate investor pleaded guilty this week to property bid rigging and mail fraud, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Atlanta division.

The Consumer Financial Protection Database might be unfair to the financial services industry, but the information it holds for lenders and servicers can help them manage customer service and avoid costly litigation.

Mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial failed four servicing tests in the second half of 2014. Joseph A. Smith Jr., the monitor of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, said the Atlanta servicer was “beginning to show progress” in complying with terms of the 2012 agreement.