A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rehashes previously announced actions against servicers of home loans and touts other regulatory activity last year.
The report, Supervisory Highlights Winter 2013, identifies problems in residential loan servicing uncovered by the bureau in 2013.
It identifies servicing problems discovered through supervision work completed by the CFPB from July through October — a period when new mortgage servicing rules had not yet gone into effect.
Among violations of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act outlined in the report were those by two servicers that failed to honor existing permanent or trial loan modifications after a servicing transfer. The CFPB claims that borrowers were charged or told to pay the wrong amounts.
Another pair of servicers reportedly required borrowers to waive any existing claims in order to get a forbearance or loan modification agreement.
“The examiners found these broad waiver clauses to be unfair as they were done without regard to individual circumstances,” the report said.
One servicer that marketed bi-weekly payment plans allegedly misrepresented how the plans worked — leading to none of the promised savings. Another bi-weekly servicer told borrowers that the would receive escrow account refunds, even though they wouldn’t.
The CFPB said it discovered that some servicers were misreporting short sales as foreclosures.
Settlements announced last year with Mortgage Master, Ocwen Financial Corp. and Washington Federal were also highlighted.
The regulator additionally noted that $2.6 million was paid out to consumers as a result of supervisory activities that weren’t publicly disclosed.
