Enforcement

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's use of relatively new authority to punish actors for actions considered "abusive" is picking up steam, though the exact meaning of the term is not always easy to grasp.

The Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., has again delayed the filing of its 2014 annual report and is also late in submitting its first-quarter results, it said in a news release Friday.

The owner of an Ohio-based loan administrator, accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of deceptive marketing, says he is the victim of a misguided lawsuit by the agency.

JPMorgan Chase has to plead guilty to an antitrust charge if it wants to resolve the Justice Department's investigation into its foreign-exchange trading activities, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday.

On the same day the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a probe into student loan servicing practices, stakeholders ranging from the Department of Education to borrower advocates outlined their wish lists for reforms.

WASHINGTON — A new mortgage disclosure regime due to take effect on Aug. 1 is unlikely to cause closing delays, according to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

The consumer watchdog agency, along with the Federal Communications Commission and state attorneys general, said the mobile carriers would refund $120 million in excessive third-party charges to consumers and pay another $38 million in fines.

The $1.1 billion-asset company said in a press release Monday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation had terminated a May 2013 order against its Talbot Bank.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit on Monday against an Ohio-based loan administrator and its owner for allegedly deceptively marketing services that claimed to save consumers money on their mortgage while any actual savings were offset by high fees.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice are taking a renewed interest in redlining, the practice of lenders charging more for products or excluding altogether minorities within certain geographic areas — and their findings may be surprising.

Four former officers of Wilmington Trust have been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the bankers of intentionally understating past-due loans in 2009 and 2010. Two of the bankers face criminal charges.

While the penalty is a blow to Ripple Labs, it could have significant implications for the industry at large and its efforts to legitimize itself in the eyes of regulators and banks. Here's how:

Regulators' latest guide for examining anti-laundering procedures lacks wholesale changes, but institutions still must decipher minute changes with potentially big impacts.

Regulators can avoid extensive, after-the-fact investigations of banks' illegal actions by standardizing the form and content of transaction data so they can spot compliance problems in real time.

In another escalation of Quicken Loans' ongoing clash with the government, the Department of Justice on Thursday filed a lawsuit alleging shoddy underwriting by the company.

Bill Emerson, chief executive of Quicken Loans, said at a recent conference that the threat of government probes and a lack of regulatory clarity are making FHA lending less attractive.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement attorneys have pulled back on new investigations in order to clear out a slew of pending cases, according to multiple current and former officials at the agency.

As banks have largely ceded the market for government-backed loans to nonbank lenders and servicers, it's fallen on Ginnie Mae to be sure that these nonbanks can meet their obligations to bondholders. It's a huge concern for President Ted Tozer, who says the company does not have the resources or manpower to examine these firms' finances.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the owner of several tax-preparation outlets that allegedly steered low-income clients into expensive loans against their anticipated refunds.

Two House Financial Services subcommittee chairmen are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to delay enforcement of a new disclosure regime due to take effect this summer until Jan. 1.