The CFPB's Respa Consent Orders: Eight Key Takeaways

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) on January 31, 2017 issued consent orders settling enforcement claims that a major mortgage lender violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) in connection with its marketing, desk rental, lead purchase and other agreements with hundreds of real estate brokers and other settlement service providers (the "Consent Orders"). The CFPB alleged that the agreements were actually mechanisms for the mortgage lender to pay for the referral of business in violation of RESPA Section 8(a). The lender will pay a $3.5 million civil money penalty to settle the action. The CFPB also resolved claims against two of the real estate brokers and a mortgage servicer for allegedly accepting payments under such agreements; those three respondents together will pay $495,000 in consumer redress, disgorgement, and penalties. Moreover, as described in Point 8 below, the recordkeeping and cooperation provisions of the various consent