CFPB Ups The Ante In RESPA Crackdowns

On April 29, 2015, the CFPB, in conjunction with the Maryland Attorney General, filed six proposed consent orders—five of which are against individual defendants—in its latest RESPA enforcement action. The Bureau alleges that a title company, two of its executives, and four loan officers concocted and carried out a mortgage-kickback scheme. These consent orders follow related proceedings against two national banks, which settled via consent orders requiring over $24 million in civil monetary penalties.

This newest complaint, filed concurrently with the consent orders, alleges that two individual executives at the now-defunct Maryland-based title company Genuine Title gave cash and marketing services in exchange for mortgage referrals from the named loan officer defendants, in violation of Section 8 of RESPA. Under the proposed consent orders, the individual defendants will be temporarily banned from the mortgage industry and required to pay between $30,000 and