CFPB Fair Lending Enforcement

September 9, 2023

Marx Sterbcow presenting at the Real Estate Settlement Providers Council “RESPRO” 2023 Fall RISE Conference

The Sterbcow Law Group’s Marx Sterbcow will be speaking at RESPRO’s 2023 Fall Conference on September 12, 2023, in Bachelor Gulp, Colorado at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Marx will be presenting two different sessions. The first topic “State Attorney Generals Have Declared War Against Illegal Affiliated Business Arrangements” with RESPRO President & Executive Director Ken Trepeta will discuss what the state attorney generals are analyzing to see whether a title or mortgage affiliated business arrangement is properly structured and operating legally. They will discuss areas of compliance which some may overlook until they receive a subpoena from a government agency. The second session will be a “Fair Lending Update” with Richard Andreano, who is a Partner at Ballard Spahr, LLP in Washington D.C. This session will discuss the continued focus of regulators and elected officials on fair lending in the mortgage space, including redlining (both traditional and digital), appraisal bias, reconsiderations of value, and automated valuation models.”

Click here for more information.

March 4, 2023

Marx Sterbcow to keynote DOMA Holdings’ 2023 Mid-South Agent Conference in Nashville

by Marx Sterbcow

Marx Sterbcow, the managing attorney, for the Sterbcow Law Group, LLC will be the keynote speaker at Doma Title Insurance’s 2023 Mid-South Agent Conference on March 7, 2023 at the Sonesta Nashville, Airport in Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Sterbcow’s presentation: “RESPA: A Primer for Title Agents” will focus on RESPA Compliance for affiliated business arrangements, marketing services agreements, and give an outlook on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

December 9, 2022

Marx Sterbcow speaking on RESPA News webinar series “CFPB unconstitutionally funded? What does it mean?”

by Marx Sterbcow

October Research’s RESPA News has invited Marx Sterbcow, with the Sterbcow Law Group, and Francis ‘Trip’ Riley, with Saul Ewing, to speak on its next webinar series. The Webinar will be held on December 14, 2022 at 2:00 PM EST. The webinar will be moderated by RESPA News editor Elizabeth Childers. The webinar will discuss the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the CFPB’s funding structure and will address questions the real estate industry has been asking such as: What does this mean? Are the CFPB actions still valid? How should I react? Trip Riley and I will answer those questions and more.

Register today and get clarification on what this ruling means for the industry.

October 4, 2022

Marx Sterbcow Speaking at the National REO Brokers Association in Orlando, Florida

by Marx Sterbcow

Marx Sterbcow, Managing Attorney of the Sterbcow Law Group, will be presenting at The National REO Brokers Association‘s (“NRBA”) Business Development Seminar in Orlando, Florida on October, 7, 2022. The topic of the session will be “You are a CFPB target! Regulation, Liabilities & Politics” which will focus on the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s lawsuit against Townstone Financial and how the CFPB’s regulation by political enforcement is now taking aim at the real estate brokerage and title insurance industries. The Seminar is at the Lowe’s Portofino Hotel at Universal Studios.

July 4, 2022

Sterbcow Law Group’s Marx Sterbcow speaking at the Collateral Risk Network (“CRN”) in Las Vegas

by Marx Sterbcow

Marx Sterbcow, Managing Attorney of the Sterbcow Law Group, will be presenting at the Collateral Risk Network event during the Valuation Expo Conference at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas on September 7, 2022. The presentation, “The CFPB’s New Equity Agenda” will discuss the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and US Department of Justice’s focus on fair lending and fair housing. The session will also focus on the CFPB’s Equal Time Advertising Rule (“EqTar”) and the Demographic Equality Employment Quota Rule (“DEEQR”) theories under the Fair Lending Act and how these concepts will reverberate across all regulated entities as these new expectations on businesses are being imposed by the federal government. EqTar is defined as the failure to advertise to a specific racial group and DEEQR is defined as job specific hiring practices.

March 28, 2022

Marx David Sterbcow speaking on RESPA and the CFPB at the Minnesota Land Title Association on April 4, 2022

by Marx Sterbcow

The Managing Attorney for the Sterbcow Law Group, Marx Sterbcow, is presenting at the Minnesota Land Title Association‘s 2022 Spring Seminar at the Minneapolis Marriot Northwest. The presentation will discuss Affiliated Business Arrangement compliance, Marketing Service Agreement & Advertising Services Agreements, and provide an update on where enforcement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed. The session will take place from 10:15 to 11:15.

July 16, 2020

Townstone Financial, Inc. Fact Sheet in Response to CFPB Lawsuit

by Marx Sterbcow

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Sues a Chicago Mortgage Company Alleging “Redlining” Violations Based on Political Speech and Social Commentary Broadcast on Conservative Radio Station

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), the controversial brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren, filed suit in Chicago yesterday against Townstone Financial, a small mortgage company, charging “redlining” violations based on political speech and social commentary broadcast on a conservative radio station. The Complaint alleges that statements made about crime in Chicago and support for police discouraged African-Americans from applying to their company and that the fact that their weekly radio show was broadcast on a conservative talk radio station discriminated against African-Americans.

James Bopp, Jr. of The Bopp Law Firm of Terre Haute, Indiana and co-counsel for Townstone, said that “The CFPB is using this case to drive all banking and mortgage companies away from advertising on conservative talk radio and to punish mainstream conservative political speech and social commentary. The CFPB has long been controversial and just lost a case in the United States Supreme Court for being improperly structured. They have been waiting years to file a case on the eve of a Presidential election to damage conservative voices. This is another federal agency weaponized to attack conservatives that needs to be stopped.”