Law and legal issues

The Supreme Court dealt hedge funds and other big investors a blow Tuesday by refusing to revive core parts of lawsuits that challenged the federal government’s capture of billions of dollars in profits generated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The statutory clock on Mick Mulvaney serving as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under a year, but the administration's path to getting a full-time director confirmed by the Senate has never looked rockier.

Walter Investment Management Corp. plans to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and start trading again under a new name in a matter of days.

A group led by the National Fair Housing Alliance is suing Deutsche Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, alleging real estate owned properties in minority communities do not receive the same level of upkeep and maintenance as REO houses in white neighborhoods.

In his decision Thursday, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said the lawsuit brought by the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union lacked standing.

Anthony Renzi, the former Freddie Mac executive brought in to try and right the ship at Walter Investment Management Corp., will be leaving the company once a replacement is found.

A federal appeals court handed a major victory — and a significant defeat — to the CFPB by upholding its constitutional structure while also slapping down the agency's practice of making new interpretations of law through enforcement actions.

Walter Investment Management Corp. pushed back the date it would emerge from bankruptcy to no earlier than Feb. 2 from the originally planned Jan. 31.

The decision by the appeals court means that a president can only fire the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cause. But the ruling also scrapped the CFPB's massive fine against a nonbank mortgage lender.

In a strongly worded memo to staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Tuesday, acting Director Mick Mulvaney indicated the bureau will value the concerns of companies it regulates to the same extent as consumers.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday agreed to expedite the appeal brought by Leandra English, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who has sought to unseat acting Director Mick Mulvaney.

"I've told people from the day I walked in there, I wasn't there to burn the place down or blow it up," the consumer bureau's acting director said at a White House briefing.

If anyone has doubted that acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Mick Mulvaney intends to overhaul the agency, the last three days alone have put those doubts to rest.

Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union's case against the appointment of Mick Mulvaney as head of the CFPB turns on whether it has standing to sue.

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case challenging the appointment of administrative law judges, which could impact a ruling on the constitutionality of the CFPB.

The deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed an appeal Friday in her battle to oust acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, prolonging the legal fight over President Trump's appointment.

Weak loan growth, a $3.25 billion litigation accrual and other costs tied to the phony-accounts saga all added up to a messy fourth quarter for the San Francisco bank.

The payments resolve a number of cases that date back to 2011 and were among the largest coordinated U.S. enforcement efforts in the years following the crisis.

After a significant setback this week in the legal bid to unseat Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumer groups are pinning their hopes on a second case they hope will provide a different result.

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.