On January 31, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) filed major consent orders (“Consent Orders”) against Prospect Mortgage, LLC (“Prospect”), a major U.S. lender, and three other parties, including two real estate brokerage firms in California (i.e., RGC Services, Inc. d/b/a ReMax Gold Coast (“ReMax Gold Coast”) and Willamette Legacy, LLC d/b/a Keller Williams Mid-Willamette “KW Mid-Willamette”)) and a mortgage servicer in Connecticut (i.e., Planet Home Lending, LLC (“Planet”)). The consent order entered into with Prospect (the “Prospect Consent Order”) (see http://bit.ly/2knzzq6) calls for the payment of a civil penalty of $3,500,000. The other parties were required to pay an additional $495,000.
These Consent Orders were issued despite the October 11, 2016 decision issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in PHH Corporation, et al v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (No. 15-1177 D.C. Cir. 2016) (“PHH Corporation”)
which dealt a blow to the authority of the CFPB and held that marketing services agreements (MSAs) by and among settlement service providers (i.e., lenders, mortgage brokers, mortgage servicers, real estate agents, brokers and brokerage firms, and attorneys) were not illegal on their face. This decision was the subject of an article appearing in the November, 2016 issue of Real Estate In-Depth (see http://bit.ly/2kfPR3u).
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