Regulation

Authorities fined five of the world’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup inc, roughly $5.7 billion, and four of them agreed to plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The fifth bank, UBS AG, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates, the Justice Department said.
U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup will pay $550 million and $925 million in criminal fines, respectively, as part of their guilty pleas.
British banks Barclays will pay $650 million in criminal penalties and Royal Bank of Scotland $395 million. Each will plead guilty to one felony count of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for U.S. dollars and euros in the foreign exchange spot market.
The $5.7 billion includes $1.6 billion in fines separately imposed by the U […]

A mortgage title company and a handful of individuals are being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Maryland Attorney General related to an alleged mortgage kickback scheme with banks such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.

The CFPB said Wednesday that it filed complaints jointly with the Maryland AG against six individuals who were tied to Genuine Title, a now-defunct title company in Maryland, as well as several other limited liability companies that allegedly transferred mortgage kickback payments. The defendants are being accused of trading cash and marketing services in exchange for mortgage referrals.

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have already been cited for the activities since loan officers were involved in the alleged scheme with Genuine Title. Authorities are requesting the court to ban five of the six named persons from the mortgage industry and pay a total of $662,500 in redress and penalties. Actions […]

NewDay Financial found itself embroiled in another regulatory order, this time stemming from allegations of rampant cheating on mortgage licensing examinations by company employees, including its chief operating officer.

The Multi-State Mortgage Committee issued the settlement agreement and consent order between 43 state mortgage regulators and NewDay Monday, following investigations by officials in New Hampshire and Maryland. NewDay will have to pay nearly $5.3 million fine as part of the order.

The test-cheating investigations were sparked by complaints filed by a former employee, and regulators found that NewDay violated the Nationwide Multi-State Licensing System and Registry Rules of Conduct for Test Takers or Education Students in multiple ways.

The findings showed that NewDay employees would take and store test information to teach co-workers what was being examined.

NewDay is owned by Chrysalis Holdings. In March 2013, the private equity firm acquired Abacus Mortgage Training and […]