Enforcement

Benjamin Lawsky, the New York regulator known for aggressive investigations and headline-grabbing fines against financial firms, is stepping down, and he reportedly plans to make a living offering banks and other companies advice.

Benjamin Lawsky will step down next month as New York's top bank regulator after four years, during which he threatened to take away the U.S. charters of some of the world's biggest banks and collected billions of dollars in penalties by being the squeaky wheel in global bank settlements.

Consent orders with Sprint and Verizon demonstrate the extent that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau expects businesses — including lenders — to affirmatively protect consumers from harm in any way related to the business transacted between them.

U.S. Bank and Bank of America won't have to face lawsuits claiming they failed to safeguard the interests of investors as required by their contracts.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group should pay $806 million in damages to government-owned mortgage companies over misleading securities pitches, a federal housing agency told a judge.

The owner of an Ohio-based loan administrator, accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of deceptive marketing, says he is the victim of a misguided lawsuit by the agency.

Before Dodd-Frank, proving risk management precautions were in place was enough; now, the only real defense lenders and servicers have is an audit trail showing how violations were avoided.

The CFPB's powers to initiate enforcement actions are nearly boundless.

WASHINGTON — A new mortgage disclosure regime due to take effect on Aug. 1 is unlikely to cause closing delays, according to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit on Monday against an Ohio-based loan administrator and its owner for allegedly deceptively marketing services that claimed to save consumers money on their mortgage while any actual savings was offset by high fees.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc engaged in "enormous" deception in selling defective mortgage-backed securities, a judge ruled following a trial over a trigger to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice are taking a renewed interest in redlining, the practice of lenders charging more for products or excluding altogether minorities within certain geographic areas — and their findings may be surprising.

Wholesale lenders and their brokers are finding preparing for the new mortgage disclosures that take effect in August especially tricky.

Two House Financial Services Committee members introduced a bipartisan bill late last week that is designed to give lenders breathing room when new disclosure rules go into effect on Aug. 1.

Ocwen Financial's shares jumped 19% to more than $10 a share as of late morning Friday, the day after it reported a first-quarter profit and highlighted an expansion into mortgage lending.

A mortgage title company and a handful of individuals are being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Maryland Attorney General related to an alleged mortgage kickback scheme with banks such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.

When insensitive consumer policies are implemented the result can be a costly compliance violation.

Cornerstone Home Lending surrendered its state mortgage license in Georgia and will pay $33,500 under the terms of a consent order reached with state banking regulators.

In another escalation of Quicken Loans' ongoing clash with the government, the Department of Justice on Thursday filed a lawsuit alleging shoddy underwriting by the company.

Judging by the help-wanted notice that Loretta Lynch posted last year, the freshly confirmed U.S. Attorney General intends to pick up where her predecessor left off and make lenders pay for their role in the subprime crisis.