New York's banking regulator is probing Ocwen Financial Corp, which collects mortgage payments, for possibly over-charging borrowers and investors to auction off foreclosed properties. Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, said in a letter to Ocwen on Monday there were "significant concerns" the company and an affiliate, Altisource Portfolio Solutions SA, were engaged in so-called "self-dealing" through an online auction site called Hubzu. Self-dealing is when a company represents its own interests in a transaction, sometimes to the detriment of its clients' interests. Ocwen, the fourth largest mortgage servicer in the United States in 2013, uses Hubzu, an Altisource Portfolio subsidiary, to auction off borrower homes facing foreclosure and foreclosed investor-owned properties. Hubzu charges an auction fee of 4.5 percent when chosen by Ocwen to host foreclosure or short sale auctions, compared to a fee as low as 1.5 percent when it competes
↧