Articles Posted in UDAAP: Reverse Vendor Management Oversight

Marx Sterbcow, Managing Attorney of the Sterbcow Law Group, will be presenting at The National REO Brokers Association‘s (“NRBA”) Business Development Seminar in Orlando, Florida on October, 7, 2022.  The topic of the session will be “You are a CFPB target!  Regulation, Liabilities & Politics” which will focus on the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lawsuit against Townstone Financial and how the CFPB’s regulation by political enforcement is now taking aim at the real estate brokerage and title insurance industries.    The Seminar is at the Lowe’s Portofino Hotel at Universal Studios.

Sterbcow Law Group’s Managing Attorney, Marx David Sterbcow, will speak at the 2020 27th Annual Real Estate Services Providers Council, Inc. “RESPRO” Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on April 24, 2020.  The RESPRO27 will be held at the Tempe Marriott at the Buttes.  The presentation “Top Down Affiliated Business Arrangement “AfBA” Compliance Demands:  The Impact of Principal and Client Compliance Demands on AfBAs and Other Recent Developments” will focus on the rapidly changing terrain of AfBA compliance demands originating from sources other than the government and the practical ramifications for adopting some of these demands into your affiliated business.

The seminar will discuss the benefits of having third parties Audit your affiliated business for Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act “RESPA” compliance based on new and evolving compliance expectations from banks, non-bank lenders, title insurance underwriters, and government regulators.  Joining Marx will be Trip Riley with Saul Weing, Arnstein & Lehr and Charles Cain with WFG National Title.

For more information on RESPRO27

Marx Sterbcow with the Sterbcow Law Group’s RESPA Law Resource Center has been invited to speak at the Real Estate Settlement Providers Organization’s “RESPRO” 26th Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 27, 2019 at 8:45 AM at the Ritz Carlton Hotel’s Carrollton Ballroom.  The presentation “Whither the CFPB: State Unfair Deceptive Abusive Acts Practices, Regulatory and Private Sector Compliance Issues, Activities and Requirements” will review the most recent federal and state mortgage, title insurance, and real estate brokerage regulatory actions.”  The session will discuss how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and various state mortgage and title insurance regulatory agencies are interpreting UDAAP/RESPA.  The session will also discuss what compliance expectations the CFPB’s Enforcement division will have when a company is under investigation and the general outlook of what is going on or not going on at the CFPB.  The presentation will hit on issues involving private sector mortgage lending compliance involving Affiliated Business Arrangements and those how those expectations extend to class action mitigation risks.

Charles “Chuck” Cain from Cincinnati, Ohio (Executive Vice President Agency at WFG and Of Counsel to the Sterbcow Law Group) and Francis “Trip” Riley from Princeton, New Jersey (Partner with Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, LLP) will co-present with Mr. Sterbcow in this session.

The Legal Description and Dodd Frank Update have teamed up again to provide their 5th annual Regulatory Outlook Webinar on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 (2:00 – 3:30 P.M. EST) educating mortgage, title and settlement services professionals on the compliance trends and issues to expect in the New Year.  The yearly webinar series has quickly become one of the most important educational sessions each year to find out what in store for the State of the Settlement Service Industry in the coming year.

This webinar features instructors Francis “Trip” Riley of Saul Ewing, Loretta Salzano of Franzén and Salzano, and Marx Sterbcow of the Sterbcow Law Group. These nationally-recognized attorneys will join moderator Danielle Kaiser of NATIC in a discussion of the pressing political, regulatory and compliance issues to watch in 2017 and how to prepare your business.

Instruction will include:

On April 21, 2016 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed suit against two owners of a company who resold loan applications containing sensitive personal data to lenders and data brokers without assessing the sources of those leads or purchasers they sold the lead data too. The CFPB filed suit against the owners of D and B Marketing, Inc. d/b/a T3Leads, Dmitry Fomichev and Davit Gasparyn. T3Leads is a lead aggregation company based in Burbank, California that purchased and sold payday and installment loan applications without properly vetting buyers and sellers.

T3Leads and two other parties were previously sued by the CFPB in December of 2015 in a separate lawsuit but this suit targets the individual co-founders of T3Leads.

CFPB Richard Cordray stated that “T3Leads steered consumers towards bad deals with lenders it didn’t vet and with no regard for how consumer’s information would be used. This is a reminder to the middlemen who buy and sell consumer loan applications: if you engage in this type of conduct, you risk the consequences of harming people.”

Lead aggregators buy consumer information (also called Leads) from Lead Generators, which are websites that market payday and installment loans. These Leads often contain personal information such as a consumer’s name, telephone number, home and email addresses, references, and employer information.

The CFPB claims jurisdiction over T3Leads and the two co-founders for violating Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices [UDAAP].

In these lawsuits the CFPB alleges that T3Leads did not vet or monitor its lead buyers, exploited consumer’s lack of understanding of the risks, costs, and conditions of the loans being applied for, and put consumer information at risk of being trafficked for illegal purposes. T3Leads purportedly sold consumer information to Indian Tribes and lenders based in foreign countries who according to the CFPB “often skirt state laws or deny the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.”

Of particular importance is the CFPB’s seemingly new tool it is using for UDAAP enforcement called “Reverse Vendor Management Oversight“. T3Leads is accused of failing to vet or monitor its upstream lead generator vendors whom it was purchasing its leads from. The monitoring of upstream vendors is a concept that could have particularly ground shaking effects on every industry the CFPB regulates including the entire residential lending industry.

The Bureau alleged that T3Leads:

“Ignored false or misleading statements about lenders obtaining consumer applications: Consumers who applied for loans through T3Leads’ lead generators had no control over who received their application and had to trust T3Leads’ selection of lenders in its network. But those lead generators suggested that its lenders met certain standards, and often falsely claimed to match consumers with lenders that “follow the rules” or offer “reasonable” terms.”

Failed to vet or monitor purchasers: T3Leads failed to vet purchasers before adding them to its network or selling them leads, and did not require lenders to provide information about whether they complied with state laws.

Steered consumers toward unfavorable loans: T3Leads’ process often steered consumers to lenders offering less favorable loan terms than otherwise available. In particular, consumers were likely to be connected to lenders that ignore state usury limits or claim immunity from state regulation and jurisdiction. These entities often charge higher interest rates than lenders that do comply with state laws, and they often paid the highest prices for leads from T3Leads.”
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