Articles Posted in CFPB UDAAP

Marx Sterbcow, Managing Attorney, of the Sterbcow Law Group will present in two sessions at the 2017 Real Estate Service Providers Council “RESPRO” Annual Conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 19, 2017.  The RESPRO Conference is from April 18-20, 2017.

The first session “Unfair Deceptive Abusive Acts Practices UDAAP: The Cloud Still Hangs Low” is from 1:30 PM– 2:30 PM in the DaVinci 3 Ballroom. Mr. Sterbcow is co-presenting with Francis (Trip) Riley with Saul Ewing. The presentation will focus on how UDAPP will continue to effect CFPB’s actions on settlement service providers and how RESPA regulated Affiliated Business Arrangements (AfBAs) need to be cognizant of their marketing and advertising efforts. We will address cases of interest and suggest tips that every company should incorporate.

The second session “RESPA: Stretching the Envelope on Prohibited Referrals” is from 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM in the DaVinci 3 Ballroom.  Mr. Sterbcow is co-presenting with Stan Gordon with Gordon & Associates and Francis (Trip) Riley with Saul Ewing.  The presentation will focus on the basic parameters of what is prohibited referral activity have expanded under CFPB which has resulted in a chilling effect on the financial settlement service industry.  The ambiguity in RESPA on defining a referral and the perceived risks in marketing activities in various circumstances will be discussed.  The presentation will provide some clarifications on when an endorsement of a service provider becomes a prohibited referral.  The session will also address whether it is a violation of Section 8 for a nationwide real estate brokerage group to promote a service provider throughout its owned or affiliated companies to their management and sales agents.  How considerations under PHH and RESPA exception Section 8(c)(2) need to be considered and is the exception absolute as implied by the current ruling.

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:

Marx Sterbcow of the Sterbcow Law Group will speak on “The Essentials IV — CFPB Consent Orders for Compliance Officers” at the Mortgage Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, September 18, 2016 from 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM. The session will be a comprehensive overview of key Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent orders and it will provide tips on how to apply the findings to your mortgage business.

For more information about the MBA Regulatory Compliance Conference please click here.

Marx Sterbcow, the Managing Attorney, of the Sterbcow Law Group, and Charles Cain, Vice President, Agency, WFG National Title Insurance Co. will present at the 2016 National Settlement Services Summit [NS3] at the Le Meridien & Sheraton Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

The session titled “Ethics: UDAAP, Reverse Vendor Oversight and Legal Malpractice” will discuss how Title agents and attorneys are expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards, and how Dodd Frank’s ban on Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) have given the CFPB broad authority to root out questionable activities. Learn how UDAAP is requiring agents to gear up when it comes to ethical conduct, particularly in the area of RESPA compliance. The presentation will explain how UDAAP could make vendor management liability and oversight a two-way street through a new enforcement tactic known as “Reverse Vendor Management Oversight”. Reverse Vendor Management Oversight could challenge the bounds of legal malpractice by requiring title agents, lawyers, and attorney notaries to be on the lookout for vendor compliance issues with their clients. Speakers will share real-world examples, and attendees will walk away with actionable tips for remaining UDAAP compliant in an increasingly active RESPA and UDAAP enforcement environment.

October Research Corporation has generously offered a Discount Code to attend NS3 for all friends and clients of the Sterbcow Law Group. To receive your Discount Code please contact the Sterbcow Law Group and we will send you the special discounted rate code to attend NS3.

Marx Sterbcow, managing attorney with the Sterbcow Law Group, and James Milano, member with Weiner Brodsky Kider PC will speak on RESPA News’s webinar series on the topic of Lead Generation Compliance. The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, November 10, 2015 from 2:20-3:15 PM EST. The Editor of RESPA News, Justine Jones will moderate the webinar.

We will train participants on the regulations governing the real estate lead generation industry and what increased attention the CFPB, Federal Trade Commission, and other agencies mean for your business practices. The webinar will focus on how the CFPB expanded its authority with the use of UDAAP, the potential ramifications of Regulation Z’s Loan Officer Compensation Rule, the dangers of co-marketing with other settlement service providers, and how to carefully vet lead generation companies.

Marx Sterbcow, managing attorney with the Sterbcow Law Group, will moderate a RESPRO Marketing Service Agreement webinar with Phil Schulman, partner at K&L Gates on October 22, 2015. The RESPA webinar titled “To Agree to Market or Not Agree to Market” will discuss how MSAs have been around for 20 years and in June of 2010 HUD’s RESPA Division issued an interpretative rule. Now however, after the CFPB’s RESPA consent order in Lighthouse Title, the PHH decision, and the recent CFPB Bulletin 2015-05, Marketing Service Agreements a/k/a MSAs have become a controversial and hot topic. Learn what you can do and what you can’t do based on the latest CFPB guidance.

Marx Sterbcow, managing attorney, of the Sterbcow Law Group, has been invited to speak at the Louisiana Bankers Association 2015 Bank Counsel Conference on the topic of “Who’s Your Vendor? Secondary Market Compliance & Title Agent Vendor Management.” The session will provide insight into how banks should be managing their vendors and what requirements they should be requiring their title agent vendors to have in place. The presentation will also focus on managing the third party vendor management risks in a Post-TRID world and the expectations the secondary market will be playing in this new changing regulatory landscape.

The 2015 Bank Counsel Conference will be held on December 10-11, 2015 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New Orleans.

Marx Sterbcow, the managing attorney, of the Sterbcow Law Group, has been invited to speak to the Kansas Land Title Association, Mortgage Bankers Association of Greater Kansas City, and Missouri Land Title Association‘s Midwest TRID and Compliance Summit on September 23, 2015 in Kansas City, Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium, Tower Club East, One Arrowhead Drive, Kansas City, MO 64129.

The presentation “Vendor Management and the Secondary Market” will discuss the secondary market investors expectations for settlement agents and how you should be monitoring your third party and fourth party vendors.

Mr. Sterbcow will then moderate a Lender Panel where he will ask TRID and Vendor Management questions to Kate Steineman from Wells Fargo, Ruth Battle from Central Bank, and Amy Prater from Bank Midwest to help title agents understand what they need to do to get ready for the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure implementation date on October 3, 2015.

The CFPB announced on Feb. 12, 2015 another consent order for issues involving a lender mortgage origination advertising practices. Flagship Financial Group, LLC was alleged to have made material misrepresentations in commercial communications that improperly suggested that Flagship Financial was affiliated with a United States government entity and Flagship made material misrepresentations that it was endorsed or sponsored by a governmental program. This consent order is very similar to the American Preferred Lending consent order.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged that Flagship disseminated advertisements promoting FHA streamline refinance loans and that the format & design of these advertisements looked like a government notice and implied that a governmental agency was the source of the advertisement.

The FHA streamline refinance mailers contained the heading “PURSUANT TO THE FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION (FHA) HUD No. 12-045,” and “United States Housing and Urban Development 12-045 Program,” and instructed consumers to call their “assigned FHA loan specialist.” Flagships name appeared only on the back of the FHA streamline advertisement mailers in the disclaimer section that Flagship was not an agency of the federal government and wasn’t affiliated with the borrower’s current lender.

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