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Regulatory Requirements
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
Brokers and Dealers [Abstract]  
Regulatory Requirements
Note 21 – Regulatory Requirements
Regulation
Our business is subject to extensive regulation by federal, state and local governmental authorities, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the SEC and various state agencies that license, audit and conduct examinations of our mortgage servicing, origination and collection activities. From time to time, we also receive requests from federal, state and local agencies for records, documents and information relating to our policies, procedures and practices regarding our mortgage servicing, origination and collection activities. In addition, the GSEs and their conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA), Ginnie Mae, various investors, non-Agency securitization trustees and others also subject us to periodic reviews and audits.
As a result of the current regulatory environment, we have faced and expect to continue to face increased regulatory and public scrutiny as well as stricter and more comprehensive regulation of our business. We continue to work diligently to assess and understand the implications of the regulatory environment in which we operate and the regulatory changes that we are facing. We devote substantial resources to regulatory compliance, while, at the same time, striving to meet the needs and expectations of our customers and clients. Our failure to comply with applicable federal, state and local consumer protection laws could lead to (i) loss of our licenses and approvals to engage in our servicing and lending businesses, (ii) governmental investigations and enforcement actions, (iii) administrative fines and penalties and litigation, (iv) civil and criminal liability, including class action lawsuits, (v) inability to raise capital and (vi) inability to execute on our business strategy, including our growth plans.
We must comply with a number of federal, state and local consumer protection laws including, among others, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the Homeowners Protection Act, the Federal Trade Commission Act and, more recently, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and state foreclosure laws. These statutes apply to loan origination, debt collection, use of credit reports, safeguarding of non-public personally identifiable information about our customers, foreclosure and claims handling, investment of and interest payments on escrow balances and escrow payment features, and mandate certain disclosures and notices to borrowers. These requirements can and do change as statutes and regulations are enacted, promulgated, amended, interpreted and enforced. The recent trend among federal, state and local lawmakers and regulators has been toward increasing laws, regulations and investigative proceedings with regard to residential real estate lenders and servicers.
We expect to continue to incur substantial ongoing operational and system costs in order to comply with these laws and regulations. Furthermore, there may be additional federal or state laws enacted that place additional obligations on servicers and originators of residential mortgage loans.
There are a number of foreign laws and regulations that are applicable to our operations in India, Uruguay and the Philippines, including acts that govern licensing, employment, safety, taxes, insurance and the laws and regulations that govern the creation, continuation and the winding up of companies as well as the relationships between shareholders, our corporate entities, the public and the government in these countries. Non-compliance with the laws and regulations of India, Uruguay or the Philippines could result in (i) restrictions on our operations in these counties, (ii) fines, penalties or sanctions or (iii) reputational damage.
Capital Requirements
Our OLS, Homeward, Liberty and OMS subsidiaries are licensed to originate and/or service forward and reverse mortgage loans in the jurisdictions in which they operate. The licensed entities are subject to minimum net worth requirements in connection with these licenses. These minimum net worth requirements are unique to each state and type of license. Failure to meet these minimum capital requirements can result in the initiation of certain mandatory actions by federal, state, and foreign agencies that could have a material effect on our results of operations and financial condition. The most restrictive of these requirements is based on the outstanding UPB of our owned and subserviced portfolio and was $753.1 million at September 30, 2014. Our licensed subsidiaries were in compliance with all of their capital requirements at September 30, 2014.
Homeward, OLS and Liberty are also parties to seller/servicer agreements with one or more of the GSEs, FHA, VA and Ginnie Mae. These seller/servicer agreements contain financial covenants that include capital requirements related to tangible net worth, as defined in each agreement, as well as extensive requirements regarding servicing, selling and other matters. To the extent that these requirements are not met, the counterparty may, at its option, utilize a variety of remedies ranging from sanctions or suspension to termination of the seller/servicer agreements, which would prohibit future originations or securitizations of forward or reverse mortgage loans or being an approved seller/servicer. We were in compliance with these net worth requirements at September 30, 2014.