Links in “Department of Justice”

The Department of Justice reached resolution with four Swiss Banks (Luzerner Kantonalbank AG, Habib Bank AG Zurich, Banque Heritage S.A. and Hyposwiss Private Bank Genève S.A.) under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. Penalties announced totaled over $25 million and require continue cooperation with the DOJ. The 2013 program provides a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the United States if they weren't then under criminal investigation related to their Swiss-banking activities. [10/30/15]

DOJ says fighting cybercrime is one of its highest priorities. Here's what it says it is doing to combat cybercrime. [10/19/15]

The Justice Department announced $186 million in settlements from the big five mortgage services for an additional 1,461 service members and their co-borrowers bringing the total settlement compensation to $311 million under the protections of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The settlements stem from servicers obtaining foreclosure without a judicial proceeding or where the servicer obtained a default foreclosure judgment without filing a proper affidavit with the court stating that the service member was in military service. [10/2/15]

Although many financial institutions are still wary to serve legal marijuana-related businesses due to current risk of enforcement, some institutions have begun seeking such service following positive guidance issued by both the Department of Justice and FinCEN. [9/30/15]

On October 15, 2015, the Federal Reserve System will host a fair lending webinar. Participating agencies will include NCUA, CFPB, the FDIC, the OCC, the DOJ, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A wide range of subjects will be discussed, including developments in mortgage lending, compliance management, pricing, and the use of data to evaluate fair lending risk. [9/29/15]

The CFPB and DOJ hit Fifth Third Bancorp for an $18 million settlement over the dealer markup rate minority borrowers were charged compared to white borrowers for car loans. The bank says it has no way of knowing the ethnicity of borrowers whose loans are submitted by auto dealers. [9/29/15]

Following the harsh penalties at the hand of the Justice Department for making shoddy FHA loans, many mortgage lenders are abandoning FHA loans, such as JP Morgan Chase, which had 12.2% of the market share two years ago, but only 0.2% at the end of last quarter. [9/29/15]

Fifth Third Bank, which operates roughly 1,300 branches in twelve states, is the subject of joint enforcement actions by the Department of Justice and the CFPB. As a result of an auto-lending enforcement action that rose from an Equal Credit Opportunity Act examination, the bank will pay $18 million to minority status borrowers and revise its pricing and compensation systems to protect against discrimination. In addition, due to an action for deceptive marketing of credit card add-on products, it will pay approximately $3 million to aggrieved customers and incur a $500,000 penalty.   [9/29/15]

The DOJ/CFPB's complaint alleges the Hudson City Savings Bank opened branches around, but not in, counties with the highest proportions of minority neighborhoods, generated 80% of mortgage applications outside minority areas, marketed around minority neighborhoods, excluded minority neighborhoods from its assessment area, and paid too little attention to fair lending compliance. [9/28/15]

The CFPB and the Department of Justice have entered into the largest redlining settlement in history ($32.75 million) against Hudson City Savings Bank. The joint agency action alleges that the bank provided unequal access to credit to minority neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania by intentionally locating branch offices and mortgage originators outside of minority neighborhoods and limiting its marketing to non-minority areas. [9/25/15]