Tag Archives: Benjamin Lawsky

In a report originally in Reuters, Ocwen will stop requiring gag orders, which disallowed some homeowners from criticizing the company publicly in exchange for having their loan terms modified, according to New York State's Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky.

A curious piece of text is appearing in some homeowner's loan modification agreements—by accepting a modification from a bank or non-bank servicer, the homeowner agrees to never publicly say, write, or post anything negative about the company doing the modification. Originally in a report from Reuters, Ocwen, Bank of America, and PNC Financial Services Group are adding new terms to their modification contracts to prevent homeowners from publicly disparaging the companies.

Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky of New York's Department of Financial Services said the agency plans to dig into fee-based ancillary services at non-banks such as Ocwen andNationstar. While Lawsky said there's "nothing inherently wrong" with companies and affiliates providing ancillary services—ranging from debt collection to loan sales—he asserted that a lack of regulatory oversight up to this point has resulted in "potentially conflicted arrangements" between servicers and their affiliates.

In a letter sent Monday to Ocwen Financial Corporation's General Counsel Timothy Hayes, New York State Department of Financial Service’s (NYSDFS) superintendent Benjamin Lawsky questioned the financial giant on business dealings related to a relationship between Ocwen and Altisource Portfolio Solutions.

Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), issued a letter to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, acknowledging the agency "has significant concerns that the explosive growth at Nationstar and other nonbank mortgage servicers may create capacity issues that put homeowners at risk."

The New York regulator who put a hold on Ocwen’s latest mortgage servicing rights (MSR) deal with Wells Fargo expressed on Wednesday his concerns about the rapid growth of non-bank servicers in the industry—and his belief that regulators should step in when necessary.