CFPB Enforcement

September 6, 2017

The CFPB ordered Zero Parallel, LLC, an online lead aggregator, pay a $100,000 penalty for steering consumers toward lenders who offered illegal or unlicensed loans that were void in the consumer’s state. The CFPB also ordered Zero Parallel’s owner, Davit Gasparyan, to pay a $250,000 penalty for similar illegal conduct at his prior company, T3Leads, in a separate case. CFPB

August 30, 2017

The CFPB filed a proposed final judgment in a federal lawsuit against Prime Marketing Holdings, LLC for illegal credit repair practices. The proposed order would permanently ban the company from doing business within the credit repair industry and require a $150,000 civil money penalty. CFPB

August 23, 2017

The CFPB ordered American Express to pay at least $1 million for the actions of two of its banking subsidiaries that discriminating against consumers in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other U.S. CFPB

August 17, 2017

The CFPB filed a complaint and proposed settlement against Aequitas Capital Management, Inc. and related entities, for aiding the Corinthian Colleges’ predatory lending scheme by enabling Corinthian to make high-cost private loans to students that both Aequitas and Corinthian knew students could not afford. Under the CFPB’s proposed settlement, about 41,000 Corinthian students could be eligible for approximately $183.3 million in loan forgiveness and reduction. CFPB

August 2, 2017

The CFPB ordered JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. to pay a $4.6 million penalty and implement necessary policy changes to address its failure to have proper, legally-required processes for reporting accurate consumer checking account behavior to consumer reporting companies. CFPB

July 27, 2017

The CFPB filed two complaints and proposed final judgments in federal court against four California-based credit repair companies and three individuals, Prime Credit, LLC, IMC Capital, LLC, Commercial Credit Consultants, Park View Law, known formerly as Prime Law Experts, Inc., Blake Johnson, Eric Schlegel, and Arthur Barens, for misleading consumers and charging illegal fees. The complaints allege that the companies not only charged illegal advance fees for credit repair services, but also misrepresented their ability to repair consumers’ credit scores. CFPB

June 7, 2017

The CFPB took action against mortgage servicer Fay Servicing for failing to provide mortgage borrowers with legally required protections against foreclosure. Fay violated the CFPB’s servicing rules by keeping borrowers in the dark about critical information about the process of applying for foreclosure relief. The CFPB also found instances where the servicer illegally launched or moved forward with the foreclosure process while borrowers were actively seeking help to save their homes. Fay Servicing will pay up to $1.15 million to harmed borrowers and must stop its illegal practices. CFPB

April 27, 2017

The CFPB took action against four online lenders – Golden Valley Lending, Inc., Silver Cloud Financial, Inc., Mountain Summit Financial, Inc., and Majestic Lake Financial, Inc. – for deceiving consumers by collecting debt they were not legally owed. The complaint was filed in federal court and alleges that the four lenders could not legally collect on these debts because the loans were void under state laws governing interest rate caps or the licensing of lenders. It also alleges that the lenders made deceptive demands and illegally took money from consumer bank accounts for debts that consumers did not legally owe. CFPB

April 26, 2017

April 26 – The CFPB took action against Security National Automotive Acceptance Company (SNAAC), an auto lender specializing in loans to servicemembers, for violating a Bureau consent order. In 2015, the CFPB ordered SNAAC to pay both redress and a civil penalty for illegal debt collection tactics, including making threats to contact servicemembers’ commanding officers about debts and exaggerating the consequences of not paying. SNAAC failed to provide more than $1 million in refunds and credits, affecting more than 1,000 consumers. The CFPB’s order requires SNAAC to make good on the redress it owes to those consumers and pay an additional $1.25 million penalty. CFPB

April 20, 2017

The CFPB sued one of the country’s largest nonbank mortgage loan servicers, Ocwen Financial Corporation, and its subsidiaries for years of widespread errors, shortcuts, and runarounds that cost some borrowers money and others their homes. Ocwen allegedly botched basic functions like sending accurate monthly statements, properly crediting payments, and handling taxes and insurance. Allegedly, Ocwen also illegally foreclosed on struggling borrowers, ignored customer complaints, and sold off the servicing rights to loans without fully disclosing the mistakes it made in borrowers’ records. CFPB