The subsequent settlements from the 2008 financial crisis can take considerable time to work their way through the legal system. As such, one company is just now being penalized by multiple federal banking agencies for its actions leading up to the recession.
The company, Lender Processing Services (LPS), was merged in 2014 into a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial [1] known as ServiceLink [2]. A statement concerning the fine was released by regulatory bodies on Tuesday.
The joint news release [3] issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency can be seen below:
“The federal banking agencies today fined ServiceLink Holdings, LLC (ServiceLink Holdings), $65 million for improper actions by its predecessor company, Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), which resulted in significant deficiencies in the foreclosure-related services that LPS provided to mortgage servicers.
The penalty assessed by the three federal banking agencies--the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency--against ServiceLink Holdings satisfied the document review provision of the previous enforcement action. The agencies continue to monitor the company’s compliance with other provisions of that order. The fine will be remitted to the U.S. Treasury.”
The official document [4] containing the details of the fine states that the Cease-and-Desist Order, also known as the 2011 Consent Order, which was issued to LPS in order to certify that the company was operating within legal bounds, “alleged that LPS and its employees engaged in unsafe or unsound practices in providing default management services to Examined Servicers.”
It further details how the ServiceLink board of managers authorized Paul Perez, Chief Compliance Office, to enter into an agreement to settle the penalty on January 17, 2017.
ServiceLink was not available for comment at the time that this article was written.