Tag Archives: NY AG

Tough Edge for Financial Services

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Maria T. Vullo %>

Maria Vullo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Law360 quoted me in Cuomo’s DFS Nominee Likely To Keep Tough Edge (behind a paywall). It reads, in part,

Although New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo turned to a longtime BigLaw attorney to lead the New York State Department of Financial Services, observers say the agency is likely to continue taking the aggressive regulatory and enforcement stance that has become its calling card.

The governor tapped Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP’s Maria T. Vullo to lead the DFS, completing a monthslong search to replace former New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin M. Lawsky. In turning to Vullo, Cuomo brings on a litigator and former prosecutor with 25 years of experience in the law, including two decades of representing banks.

But given the reputation that the DFS has built up since it burst onto the scene with its $340 million sanctions violation settlement with the U.K.’s Standard Chartered PLC in 2012, advocates and observers believe that if confirmed, Vullo will continue to push for tough enforcement and big penalties against the banks, insurers and other financial firms that the DFS oversees.

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However, because Vullo comes from a BigLaw background with extensive experience representing financial firms, some have raised concerns that the agency will become less aggressive in enforcing New York state’s financial regulations.But observers who spoke to Law360 said her noncorporate experience gives a clearer picture of how she might run the DFS.

Vullo has been an advocate for women in the legal profession and represented women who sued for damages after being raped during the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, helping secure a $745 million verdict in that case.

And in her work for Cuomo during his tenure as New York’s attorney general, Vullo oversaw a staff of around 200 that worked in the office’s investor protection, antitrust, real estate finance, consumer fraud and Internet bureaus.

In that position, she took action against Ezra Merkin and Ivy Asset Management for their roles in defrauding investors in Bernard L. Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, as well as launching an investigation and action against Ernst & Young for investor losses in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s 2008 bankruptcy.

Those past experiences should allay any fears that Wall Street’s critics might have, said David Reiss, a professor at Brooklyn Law School.

“I thought that Governor Cuomo would seek an aggressive replacement for Lawsky,” Reiss said. “Vullo fits the bill.”

To that point, financial reform and other advocates said in interviews that they knew little about her, but were encouraged by what they did know.

“What we’re hoping is that the reputation that the department has established will continue through the new leadership,” said Andy Morrison of the New Economy Project, a New York-based advocacy group.

Indeed, Cuomo has an interest in maintaining an aggressive DFS.

The billions of dollars in fines it collected from banks have gone to fund state infrastructure projects, including the construction of a new Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River north of New York City.

And that get-tough approach has also been a way to attract voters.

“My sense is he benefits from the halo effects of an aggressive DFS,” Reiss said.

Casting Light on the Shadow Docket

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New York Attorney General Schneiderman’s lawsuit against various HSBC entities, New York v. HSBC Bank USA et al., No. 2013-1660 (May 31, 2013), alleges that HSBC entities have sent hundreds or thousands of NY households into legal limbo because they did not comply with procedural requirements applicable to foreclosure.  The complaint outlines these procedural requirements as follows (warning:  technical details to follow):

13. At lease 90 days prior to filing a foreclosure action, the lender must send a homeowner a notice that (i) states the homeowner is at risk of losing the home, (ii) sets forth the amount owed and (iii) provides a list of approved housing counseling agencies that may provide free or low-cost counseling.  [RPAPL section 1304(1).]  The intent of RPAPL, section 1304(1) is to prevent the necessity of a foreclosure action the first place.

easy installment loans

14. It the matter is not resolved within 90 days, the lender may file a foreclosure action.  [RPAPL section 1304(1).]

15. In order to help homeowners avoid losing their home whenever possible, New York State law, CPLR section 3408(a), provides for the court to schedule a mandatory settlement conference for the homeowner and lender.

16. The express purpose of the settlement conference is “to determin[e] whether the parties can reach a mutually agreeable resolution to help the [homeowner] avoid losing his or her home, and evaluat[e] the potential for a resolution in which payment schedules or amounts may be modified or other workout options may be agreed to, and for whatever other purposes the court deems appropriate.” [CPLR section 3408(a).]

17. The lender or its counsel must appear a the mandatory settlement conference. If counsel appears, the lawyer must have authority to dispose of the case. CPLR section 3408(c) (emphasis added). The parties are required to negotiate in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable resolution, including a loan modification, that will enable the homeowner to stay in his or her home on more affordable terms.

18. Recognizing that the success of a settlement conference will be enhanced if it is heldf as soon as possible before the arrears, interest, fees and penalties owed by the homeowner mount, CPLR section 3408(a) mandates that the court must hold a settlement conference within sixty days after the date that the lender files proof of service.

19.  However, proof of service is filed with the County Clerk and not the Uniform Court System, which is responsible for scheduling the mandatory settlement conference.  Because the Unified Court System is not aware that a foreclosure action has been commenced until a Request for Judicial Intervention (“RJI”) has been filed, New York Court rules regarding residential foreclosures and mandatory settlement conferences, 22 NYCR section 202.12-a(b)(1), expressly require that the lender file an RJI with the proof of service.

20. Filing the RJI with the proof of service furthers the New York State policy of preventing the loss of homes to foreclosures in two important respects.

21. First, without filing the RJI with the proof of service, the Unified Court System cannot comply with its legal obligation to hold the mandatory settlement conference within sixty days after the date when proof of service is filed.

22. Second, the court sends the RJI, or the homeowner’s name, address and telephone number to an approved housing agency “for the purpose of that agency making the homeowner aware of housing counseling and foreclosure prevention services and options available to them . . .” CPLR section 3408(d). The obvious intent of this requirement is to provide homeowners with the tools and resources that can help them avoid losing their homes. (3-5)

These cases are what is now known as the “shadow docket” because they are in a litigation limbo. it seems that HSBC will have a hard time arguing with the AG’s identification of hundreds of such cases in the four of NY’s 62 counties that it investigated. But it is unclear whether courts will be willing to impose the penalties requested by the AG, including “waiving all accrued interest charges, fees and penalties that accrued, or will accrue, beginning 60 days after the filing of proof of service on the homeowner.” (11) While the failure to hold the settlement conference most certainly has harmed some homeowners, it has also most certainly not harmed others who were not in the position to pay anything at all on a mortgage after losing a job or facing some other serious crisis. There may be a disconnect between the wrong exposed and the remedy requested.