Law and legal issues

The three-year loan will boost the hotel-centered REIT's dwindling cash reserves battered by the COVID-19 global impact on travel.

The agency's rule outlines steps collectors must take to inform consumers about an outstanding debt, and prohibits companies from pursuing lawsuits after a statute of limitations has ended.

If CMBS litigation picks up in earnest in the aftermath of the pandemic, lessons gleaned from over a decade of RMBS litigation could pay dividends, Bilzen Sumberg lawyers Philip Stein and Kenneth Duvall say.

The three companies agreed to pay a total of $74 million in remediation.

The nine arraigned individuals face 136 counts of felony charges for allegedly running an advance fee mortgage relief scheme over the last decade, totaling $6 million.

The president-elect has legal backing to fire Director Kathy Kraninger thanks to a recent court ruling, but Republicans are prepared to challenge his ability to choose her successor.

The agency’s final rule modernizing the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act limits calls to seven per week, but collectors won stronger protections from liability claims and other key changes to the original proposal.

The agency’s consolidation of supervision and enforcement policy into one office could compromise the independence of those deciding when to investigate alleged wrongdoing by banks and others, critics of the move say.

The Buffalo, N.Y., bank will pay a $546,000 penalty, which will be passed on to the National Flood Insurance Program to help offset costs.

If the tally included loans with some form of payment relief, the rate would be close to 8%.