Archive

January 23, 2017

The CFPB took separate actions against CitiFinancial Servicing and CitiMortgage, Inc. for creating obstacles for struggling homeowners seeking options to save their homes. The mortgage servicers kept borrowers in the dark about options to avoid foreclosure or burdened them with excessive paperwork demands in applying for foreclosure relief. CitiMortgage has been ordered to pay an estimated $17 million in compensation and another $3 million in civil penalties. CitiFinancial Services is to refund approximately $4.4 million to consumers, and pay a civil penalty of $4.4 million. CFPB

January 19, 2017

Colorado-based global money services business Western Union Company agreed to forfeit $586 million and enter into agreements with DOJ, FTC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Central District of California, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Southern District of Florida to settle criminal violations relating to the company's failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and aiding and abetting wire fraud. According to company admissions, Western Union violated the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-fraud statutes by processing hundreds of thousands of transactions for Western Union agents and others involved in an international consumer fraud scheme. As part of the scheme, fraudsters contacted victims in the U.S. and falsely posed as family members in need or promised prizes or job opportunities. The fraudsters directed the victims to send money through Western Union to help their relative or claim their prize. Various Western Union agents were complicit in these fraud schemes, often processing the fraud payments for the fraudsters in return for a cut of the fraud proceeds. The company also agreed to pay a $586 million judgement to settle related FTC charges. DOJ

January 18, 2017

Massachusetts-based global financial services company State Street Corporation agreed to pay a $32.3 million criminal penalty to resolve charges it engaged in a scheme to defraud a number of the bank’s clients by secretly applying commissions to billions of dollars of securities trades. The company also agreed to pay the SEC a civil penalty of the same amount to settle related charges for a total government payout of roughly $65 million. According to company admissions, bank employees conspired to add secret commissions to fixed income and equity trades performed for at least six clients of the bank’s “transition management” business, which helps institutional clients move their investments between and among asset managers or liquidate large investment portfolios. The commissions were charged on top of fees the clients had agreed to pay the bank, and despite written instructions to the bank’s traders that generally reflected that the clients were not to be charged trading commissions. State Street employees took steps to hide the commissions from the clients. DOJ

January 19, 2017

The CFPB sued TCF National Bank for tricking consumers into costly overdraft services. The CFBP alleges TCF designed its application process to obscure the fees and make overdraft seem mandatory for new customers to open an account, even though banks cannot charge overdraft fees on one-time debit purchases and ATM withdrawals without a consumer’s consent. TCF also adopted a loose definition of consent for existing customers in order to opt them into the service and pushed back on any customer who questioned the process. CFPB

January 18, 2017

Illinois filed a lawsuit against Navient Corporation, its subsidiaries Navient Solutions Inc., Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc. and General Revenue Corporation and Sallie Mae Bank, over widespread abuses across all aspects of its business, including student lending, student loan servicing and student loan debt collection. Madigan’s complaint alleges that Navient’s practices harmed borrowers and put the company’s profits before the interests of millions of student borrowers across the country. For decades, Navient and Sallie Mae have been involved in the business of student lending – from the origination of loans, to the servicing of those loans for repayment, and the collection of loans that enter into default. In this time, Madigan alleged that Navient grew its student loan company into one of the country’s largest by engaging in practices that repeatedly harmed borrowers. IL

January 18, 2017

The CFPB sued the nation’s largest servicer of both federal and private student loans, Navient, for systematically and illegally failing borrowers at every stage by providing bad information, processing payments incorrectly, and failing to act when borrowers complained. Navient also used short cuts and deception to illegally cheat many struggling borrowers out of their rights to lower repayments. CFPB

January 13, 2017

The Department of Justice, 21 states, and the District of Columbia reached a nearly $864 million settlement agreement with Moody’s Investors Service Inc., Moody’s Analytics Inc., and their parent, Moody’s Corporation to resolve allegations arising from Moody’s role in providing credit ratings for Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO), contributing to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. According to the government, "Moody’s failed to adhere to its own credit rating standards and fell short on its pledge of transparency in the run-up to the Great Recession [and] . . . used a more lenient standard than it had itself published." The settlement includes a $437.5 million federal civil penalty, which is the second largest payment of this type ever made to the federal government by a ratings agency. DOJ

January 13, 2017

Illinois, the Department of Justice, and 21 other states announced an $864 million settlement with Moody’s Corporation, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. and Moody’s Analytics Inc. to resolve allegations that the credit ratings agency compromised its independence and objectivity in assigning its highest ratings to risky mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance securities in the lead up to the 2008 economic collapse. According to the settlement, Moody’s consistently made misrepresentations about the processes it used to assign credit ratings to structured finance securities. While publicly promising independent, objective analyses, the company privately relaxed its ratings criteria to ensure its clients’ residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) would achieve higher ratings than the actual quality of the assets supported. Structured finance securities, including RMBS and CDOs, derive their value from the monthly payments consumers make on their mortgages. The alleged misconduct began as early as 2001 and became particularly rampant between 2004 and 2007. IL, CA, PA, MA

December 21, 2016

The SEC announced fraud charges against Navnoor Kang, the former Director of Fixed Income for the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and Greg Schonhorn and Deborah Kelly, registered representatives of two different broker-dealers.  According to the SEC’s complaint, Schonhorn and Kelly orchestrated a pay-to-play scheme in which Kang steered billions of dollars in pension business to certain firms in exchange for luxury gifts, lavish vacations, and tens of thousands of dollars spent on hotel rooms, restaurants, cocaine, and prostitutes.  SEC

December 20, 2016

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will pay $7.5 million to settle charges it used trades involving customer cash to lower the firm’s borrowing costs in violation of the SEC’s Customer Protection Rule.  The Customer Protection Rule is intended to safeguard customers’ assets so that they can be promptly returned should the broker-dealer fail.  The SEC’s order found that from March 2013 to May 2015, Morgan Stanley had its affiliate Morgan Stanley Equity Financing Ltd. serve as a customer of its U.S. broker-dealer.  This allowed the affiliate to use margin loans from the broker-dealer to finance the costs of hedging swap trades with customers.  The margin loans lowered the borrowing costs incurred to hedge these swap trades and reduced the U.S. broker-dealer’s customer reserve account deposit requirements by tens to hundreds of millions of dollars per day.  According to the SEC’s order, the transactions violated the Customer Protection rule, which prohibits broker-dealers from using affiliates to reduce their customer reserve account deposit requirements.  SEC