The CFPB released a report summarizing its efforts to help struggling homeowners and avert another foreclosure crisis.
The report, “Mortgage Servicing Efforts in Response to the COVID19 Pandemic,” outlines the agency’s efforts, which includes:
- Conducting prioritized assessments, or targeted supervisory reviews, designed to obtain real-time information from mortgage services due to the elevated risk of consumer harm because of the pandemic.
- Reminding servicers that “unprepared is unacceptable,” and that servicers need to dedicate enough resources and staff to ensure they can communicate clearly with homeowners, effectively assist borrowers, and reduce avoidable foreclosures during the surge in forbearance exits this fall.
- Implementing temporary procedural safeguards to help ensure that borrowers have time before foreclosure to explore their options, including loan modifications and selling their homes.
- Analyzing consumer complaint data about mortgage servicing and mortgage forbearances.
- Conducting additional, targeted review of high-risk complaints related to COVID-19 forbearance.
- Analyzing and publishing mortgage servicers’ COVID-19 pandemic response.
- Conducting original research documenting that Black and Hispanic communities, and low-income communities across racial and ethnic groups are at increased risk of another foreclosure crisis due to the disproportionate concentration of mortgage forbearances and delinquencies in those communities;
- Creating an online housing hub website in partnership with other federal agencies, to connect homeowners, renters and landlords with information about CARES Act assistance and protections.
- Creating and distributing homeowner outreach materials, in English and other languages, that servicers and housing counselors can use to help homeowners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Continuing to monitor closely the performance of mortgage servicers to prevent avoidable foreclosures to the maximum extent possible and will not hesitate to take supervisory or enforcement action if warranted.