Coppell-based mortgage lender and servicer Mr. Cooper Group Inc. has been ordered to refund $73 million to about 40,000 homeowners for repeatedly failing to provide basic operations as a mortgage servicing company over four years, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
From 2012 through 2015, Mr. Cooper, then operating as Nationstar Mortgage, engaged in multiple illegal practices in handling mortgages in the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to a complaint filed by the CFPB and 50 state attorneys general.
The loan servicer allegedly failed to honor borrowers’ loan modification agreements, foreclosed on borrowers with pending forbearance applications after promising not to do so, and failed to properly handle escrow payments and accounting for homeowners who were in Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings, among other unlawful acts, according to the complaint.
Nationstar will repay roughly 40,000 borrowers about $73 million in refunds and damages and pay a $1.5 million fine to the CFPB.
In a statement, Mr. Cooper chairman and CEO Jay Bray said the company is pleased that the matter is resolved and has corrected the problems identified.
The company “made significant governance and operational improvements” and strengthened internal control systems “to ensure that they were appropriate for our size and scope of our operations,” the statement says.
When the issues were identified several years ago, “we immediately made restitution to our impacted customers and invested in process improvements to prevent reoccurrence,” Bray said in the statement.
“The results of these improvements and investments are evident in key measurements of customer experience, including the number of customer complaints, which have fallen to record lows,” he said.
Bray aded: “We have invested in developing a culture of customer advocacy that extends throughout all levels of the organization, from our team members who serve our customers every day to our senior leadership.”
Mr. Cooper is the nation’s largest nonbank servicer of mortgage loans.
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