On December 20, 2019, the President signed into law House Resolution 1865, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, which is now Public Law 116-94. The law extends the deduction for mortgage insurance premiums (“MIP”) retroactive to 2018, applies to amounts paid or accrued after December 31, 2017, and is set to expire once again on […]
CFPB Issues Its Fall 2019 Rulemaking Agenda
A&B Abstract: On November 20, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “Bureau” or “CFPB”) published its Fall 2019 Rulemaking Agenda (the “Rulemaking Agenda”) as part of the Fall 2019 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Rulemaking Agenda sets forth the matters that the Bureau reasonably anticipates having under consideration during the […]
Federal Court Inspects Maryland’s Restrictions on Inspection Fees
A&B Abstract: Maryland’s inspection fee statute has been interpreted by the Maryland Court of Appeals and the Maryland Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation (“OCFR”) to apply both at the time of origination and throughout the servicing of a residential mortgage loan. More recently, a lower federal district court decision came to a different […]
Maine Enacts Law Protecting Victims of Economic Abuse
A&B Abstract: An Act to Provide Relief to Survivors of Economic Abuse (the “Economic Abuse Law”), effective September 19, 2019, is aimed at preventing “economic abuse” by providing certain protections to victims of such abuse, in part, by imposing additional obligations on debt collectors and consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”). Debt collectors and CRAs should carefully review […]
Slaying the Monster? Reduced Risk of False Claims Act Prosecution for FHA Lenders
A&B Abstract: In an effort to incent large depository institutions to return to FHA lending, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”), on October 28, 2019, that delineates HUD’s process for determining whether violations of FHA guidelines should be […]