Mortgage servicers increasingly are including non-disparagement clauses in loan modification agreements, including ordinary loan modifications (i.e., those that are not negotiated in settlement of litigation). In at least one instance, Ocwen, the largest non-bank servicer of mortgages in the U.S. thanks to a number of acquisitions in recent years, sought to impose a non-disparagement provision that would have prevented the homeowners from making "any derogatory and/or disparaging comments about Ocwen."
The New York State Department of Financial Services has announced an investigation into Ocwen's use of these clauses.
