Six years after the housing crash, the foreclosure crisis continues to reverberate in the United States. Ocwen Financial Corp., one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, is facing an investigation by regulators and a new lawsuit over its treatment of homeowners facing foreclosures, reports NPR. The class-action suit alleges that Ocwen has been charging marked-up, illegal fees and unfairly pushing homeowners into foreclosure. The firm collects mortgage payments from American homeowners.
According to Moody’s Analytics, there were 700,000 foreclosures last year. And some of those people probably didn’t need to lose their homes. Ocwen marketed itself as a partner in helping homeowners avoid avoid foreclosure. But regulators in New York and elsewhere allege that Ocwen harmed many homeowners rather than helped. The allegations have sent Ocwen’s stock price swooning — down more than 60 percent this year.