CFPB can demand answers about home foreclosures, judge rules

The New York Times reports:

At a time when many Republicans are urging President Trump to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal judge has now upheld its authority to issue a subpoena in a housing finance investigation.

Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of Federal District Court in Detroit has ruled that one of the nation’s largest providers of seller-financed homes must comply with a demand for documents and other information from the consumer agency.

The bureau has been looking into whether the terms of some of these sales violated federal truth-in-lending laws. In recent years, these kinds of deals have ballooned in poorer neighborhoods as lower-income Americans have found it harder to obtain mortgages and as private investment firms have stepped in to offer alternative financing since banks often will not lend to them.

The agency filed a lawsuit in November after one such provider, Harbour Portfolio Advisors of Dallas, refused to comply with an administrative subpoena.

The full article is here.

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