CFPB Sues Ocwen Financial over Mortgage Servicing Process

On Thursday, April 20, 2017, the CFPB sued Ocwen Financial, one of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage loan servicers, and its subsidiaries, for allegedly failing borrowers through the mortgage servicing process. The Bureau alleged a history of errors, shortcuts and lack of customer support by Ocwen cost borrowers monetary losses, and others their homes. Ocwen allegedly failed at basic services including sending accurate monthly statements, properly crediting payments, and handling taxes and insurance. Ocwen was also accused of illegally foreclosing on struggling borrowers, ignoring customer complaints, and selling off the servicing rights to loans without fully disclosing the mistakes it made in borrowers’ records. The Florida Attorney General took similar action against Ocwen in a separate lawsuit, while other state financial regulators are also independently issuing cease-and-desist and license revocation orders against Ocwen for escrow management and licensing issues.

 

Headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL, Ocwen is among the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage servicers, servicing nearly 1.4 million loans with an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $209 billion as of December of 2016.