Law and legal issues

General Electric placed its WMC Mortgage unit into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it has nearly $1.7 billion in legal settlements agreed to or pending.

Homeowners in Chicago cheated by a mortgage fraud scheme are seeking to form a committee to protect their interests in the bankruptcy of Ditech Holding Corp., the company that owns their loans.

The civil rights activist Jesse Jackson is pushing a proposal that the billions banks have paid in fines be given to Americans who lost homes or suffered in other ways during the financial crisis.

In a unanimous ruling, the court placed new limits on the ability of consumers to sue law firms that handle foreclosures on behalf of mortgage servicers.

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said that the megabank has worked to address past issues and is equally committed to preventing new problems from arising, despite reports suggesting otherwise.

The agency has required restitution in just one of six settlements under its new director, raising questions about whether the pattern will continue.

Ocwen Financial Corp. now alleges that Fidelity Information Services misled California officials about its ability to conduct the audit at the heart of litigation.

Ditech Holding Corp. is refiling for bankruptcy almost a year after emerging from it in order to facilitate a restructuring agreement with lenders holding more than 75% of its term loans.

A lawsuit alleging Wells Fargo improperly compensated its California-based mortgage loan officers could have broader ramifications now that it has been granted class certification.

Ocwen Financial subsidiary PHH Mortgage will pay a total of $750,000 to six military members and increase employee training to settle Department of Justice allegations that it conducted foreclosures that violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Och-Ziff Capital is suing BNY Mellon, as trustee, to compel it to calculate interest in a way that is more favorable to the class of securities it holds.

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a broad challenge to the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that Republicans say has stifled economic growth through over-regulation.

Ditech Holding Corp. is proposing to pay $257,000 and improve governance to settle a stockholder lawsuit alleging that a lack of oversight allowed improprieties to occur in several mortgage-related business lines.

A National Fair Housing Alliance-led group plans to amend and refile a recently dismissed complaint against Deutsche Bank, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Altisource Portfolio Solutions alleging racial discrimination in property preservation.

The bank recently notified an upstate New York man that he was wrongly denied a mortgage modification, and enclosed a $25,000 check. But details of what went wrong have been hard to come by.

Amrock is calling for a new trial in its dispute with HouseCanary following a judge's denial of its motion to reverse an earlier decision in HouseCanary's favor.

HSBC will pay $765 million to settle allegations that it sold defective residential mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, resolving one of the London-based bank's last significant legal challenges with the U.S. government.

A judge denied the settlement terms in a TCPA lawsuit against Ocwen Financial Corp. over concerns that the proposed $17.5 million payment was insufficient.

State officials have lost two rounds in a lawsuit that says California improperly diverted money intended for homeowners to make payments on housing bonds.

Advocates are seeking more federal funding for affordable housing. A federal investigation into the banks’ alleged manipulation of a popular tax-credit program can’t be helping their cause.