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Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has signaled he will be reviewing methods for forcing the return of mortgaged funds for misrepresentation with no elaboration."FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac will be evaluating ways to 'recall loans' that have been obtained fraudulently," Pulte said in a pinned post on the X social media platform.The comment, which followed an earlier Pulte post about a new FHFA fraud tip line, could mean the two government-related loan buyers will be doing more to get lenders to repurchase loans when there's deception. But it also may indicate more interest in holding consumers or others responsible.Neither Pulte nor the FHFA had responded to requests for clarification at deadline.Although it was not immediately clear what context Pulte was using the term in, across lending in general a "loan recall" refers to a situation where the return of borrowed funds are requested in response to breaches for financing contracts that can include fraud.Pulte's use of the term "recall" may be in line with his roots in the homebuilding market, where it's used more commonly in financing arrangements than in single-family mortgages, where it can refer to a variety of circumstances.In the single-family market, "loan acceleration" can be more commonly used and associated with what occurs in the foreclosure process. Recall also may be a term used in connection with a borrower's right or rescission, but that's unlikely in this case.Single-family lenders in the United States may specifically recall mortgages from borrowers in certain instances when actual property use changes and becomes mismatched with what is represented in the loan documents within a certain timeframe.Rarely does a need to change the status of a property down the road raise an issue that can't be worked out upfront in consultation with lenders, real estate agents and attorneys in drawing up contracts; particularly in the non-qualified mortgage market where loan terms are more flexible.But historically, recalls have occurred in the mainstream mortgage market when a primary residence or a second home has changed status in certain ways less than 12 months after closing, if this is specified in a contract and a waiver has not been issued.If the borrower signed a document promising to occupy the property for a minimum one year and the collateral instead becomes used as an investment property, this could be a concern for lenders because they often assign different terms for the latter type of loan. They may seek to recall it in response.One industry source who asked to speak on background said Pulte's comment could be related to a FHFA referral to the U.S. Attorney General alleging New York AG and Trump foe Letitia James misrepresented her occupancy status and committed mortgage fraud. She has not been charged.Sam Antar's White Collar Fraud, a blog published by a convicted felon who faced securities fraud charges in the 1980s but later came to advise law enforcement agencies on crime, first reported on the referral. A spokesman for James, who previously obtained a $454 million real estate judgment against the Trump Organization, told the New York Post and other outlets she "is focused every single day protecting New Yorkers, especially as this administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law."

Russell Vought during a Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing on January 22, 2025.Al Drago/Bloomberg WASHINGTON — The Trump administration began layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with reduction in force notices sent to more than 1,400 employees just days after acting Director Russell Vought outlined ways to cut enforcement and supervision at the bureau. All offices at the agency were hit, led by enforcement, supervision, research, technology and fair lending, according to current and former employees who spoke on condition of anonymity and received the notices. Fox Business News first reported the layoffs, which the outlet put at 1,500 to 1,700, and which would leave the agency with roughly 200 employees. Vought said in a note to laid-off employees that the changes are "necessary to restructure the Bureau's operations to better reflect the agency's priorities and mission.""Anybody should expect a letter at any time for the rest of this administration," one CFPB staffer said Thursday. "It's the sword of Damocles." The layoffs come just days after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a partial stay of a preliminary injunction that had prohibited the agency from issuing reductions in force. The panel ruled that future CFPB firings must be subject to an "assessment" of whether the workers are "unnecessary" to perform the bureau's legally mandated duties.The day before, CFPB's Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta scaled back the scope of the agency's work in a memo to the staff listing 11 priorities for the year. Paoletta in the memo said the bureau would refocus its efforts on supervising large banks over nonbank competitors. It's not clear where the courts will ultimately fall on the CFPB's statutory requirements on supervising nonbanks. The Dodd-Frank Act states specifically that the bureau "shall require reports and conduct examinations on a periodic basis" of non-depositories within its jurisdiction.The move to terminate the bulk of the CFPB's staff drew criticism from consumer groups, who said the layoffs amount to essentially shuttering the bureau. "Sabotaging the CFPB by firing almost 90% of its remaining civil servants who protect Americans from corporate crime is hardly the 'individualized' or 'particularized' assessment that the court required the CFPB to undergo," said Erin Witte, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America. "These mass layoffs combined with the April 16 memo provide a blueprint for would-be cheats and lawbreakers about which laws they can violate without being held accountable by our nation's supposed consumer finance watchdog."Demand Progress Education Fund said the layoffs have "effectively killed the CFPB." "What they're doing is systematically gutting all efforts to protect service members, and all Americans, from fraud and scams while simultaneously letting Wall Street, Big Banks and Big Tech off the hook," said Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress Education Fund. "The CFPB has heard hundreds of thousands of complaints from service members, veterans and their families and has returned nearly more than $180 million back to those communities. If the administration actually cared about them, they wouldn't have fired most of the people responsible for protecting them."

The state and local tax deduction — the subject of one of the most contentious fiscal fights in Congress — is a write-off that most Americans will never claim, even in the districts of the lawmakers fighting hardest to increase the tax break, data analyzed by Bloomberg News shows. Congress will draft its multitrillion tax cut proposal in the coming weeks, and the priorities of a small minority of high-earning constituents in a handful of districts in New York, New Jersey and California will almost certainly be reflected in the final version.Republicans led by President Donald Trump, who vowed to expand the SALT cap on the campaign trail, are on track to increase the $10,000 cap on the deduction. The president in his first term limited the deduction — which is claimed by the roughly 10% of people who have itemized their taxes in recent years — as a way to pay for other tax cuts.But SALT has become a politically important tax break in key areas, and it's receiving such outsize attention because of legislative math. The House cannot pass a tax bill this year without placating a handful of swing districts, where the local taxes and property values are high enough that the SALT deduction is a big deal.Six House Republicans — Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nicole Malliotakis and Andrew Garbarino of New York, New Jersey's Tom Kean Jr. and California's Young Kim — have vowed to oppose any bill that doesn't sufficiently raise the SALT cap, and that a proposal to raise it to $25,000 falls short. Lawler introduced a bill to hike the threshold to $100,000. The data shows that even in these SALT-heavy districts, the average person isn't much affected by the cap. For all six Republicans who are members of the bipartisan SALT Caucus, the average amount of state, local and property taxes paid on itemized returns is far below $10,000 per year.Most taxpayers don't have enough deductions from $10,000 in SALT, mortgage interest write-offs and charitable donation tax breaks to itemize. Instead, about 90% of taxpayers opt for the standard deduction: $15,000 for individuals or twice that for joint filers in 2025. It's only about the 10% of taxpayers who itemize who are even eligible to claim SALT — many of them with expensive homes, high incomes and large property tax bills. That means they can't claim SALT, though advocates note that a higher cap would mean it would make financial sense for more people to itemize.The need to include a SALT cap increase to benefit these taxpayers means that other tax breaks likely will have to be curtailed or spending cuts increased to keep within a maximum $5.8 trillion deficit increase target.Support from the six core Republicans standing firm on the SALT issue are crucial to the success of the tax bill, which Republicans are looking to ram through Congress this summer without the help of any Democrats. The GOP's razor-thin majority means they can only lose a handful of votes on any piece of legislation.Republicans will also likely need to hold these seats in the New York City and southern California areas if they are to retain control of the House in the 2026 midterms, a reason Trump has cited for the necessity to raise the SALT deduction.

The on-again, off-again volatility behind President Trump's tariffs is already leading to higher material costs for homebuilders even though some are on pause and others include carveouts, the industry's biggest trade group said. A series of separate policies targeting cross-border trade with Canada and Mexico, Chinese products, all steel and aluminum imports and nations imposing counter-tariffs amounts to a source of confusion pushing prices upward, researchers at the National Association of Home Builders found.  Supplies for new-home construction have risen an average of 5.5% since the beginning of Donald Trump's second term, NAHB reported. At the same time, the remodeling industry reported an even higher spike of 6.9% after the president was inaugurated in January. "The uncertainty caused by the mere announcement of tariffs can have an adverse effect on the behavior of consumers and even businesses," wrote Paul Emrath, NAHB vice president for survey and housing policy research, in a statement. While tariff implementation did not begin until March, the threat led some companies to increase prices as early as fourth quarter 2024. Although reciprocal tariffs are now paused until summer and exemptions given for some products, including Canadian lumber, "significant uncertainty about the final outcome" still exists, prompting suppliers to hike prices. Current tariff levels stand at 10% for most products from Canada and Mexico and 145% on Chinese goods. A blanket 25% tax on all steel and aluminum imports also remains in place. "In the meantime, economic uncertainty can adversely affect consumer confidence and make prospective home buyers hesitate," Emrath added. Uncertainty from tariff developments contributed to an ongoing drop in homebuilders' sales expectations this year, according to NAHB's monthly surveys. But even if homebuilding materials can be obtained domestically, any sign of tariffs on the horizon will apply upward pressure across the board, regardless of their source or exemption status, economic analysts have noted. U.S. metal manufacturers also rely heavily on imports to produce finished goods that are sold to the construction industry. Many builders continue to use Canadian sourced lumber in new construction, while other components that go into residential structures frequently are made in China. The effect of tariffs on consumer behavior is already evident, according to a study from Redfin. Almost a quarter, or 24%, of U.S. residents are canceling plans for major purchases like a home or car due to Trump's policies, according to an April survey conducted by the real estate brokerage. The developments also caused 32% to delay such purchase plans. "Consumers are tightening their belts because they are rightly nervous about their job security and the prospect of paying more for everyday expenses," said Chen Zhao, Redfin economics lead, in a press release. But the threat of rising prices also led 8% to make their large purchase sooner than expected, with another 9% accelerating plans to avoid full tariff impact, Redfin said. A recent analysis from real estate data provider Cotality found tariffs could add between $17,000 to $22,000 to the cost of a newly built home over the next year. The pullback in consumer spending, though, could hold a potential silver lining for home buyers, Zhao said. "The drop in demand could cause home prices to stay flat, or even fall, and there's some chance mortgage rates could drop in the next few months."

Storm clouds are brewing in the spring home buying market. The 1.15 million available homes for sale nationwide in March was the most since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, according to Zillow. Last month's figure coincides with home value growth of just 0.2% in March from the prior month, the slowest spring growth from one year to the next since 2018. Additionally, the real estate platform reported price cuts on more than 23% of its listings in March, the highest share for the month since 2018. "Buyers — especially first-timers without equity to pour into their down payment — continue to struggle with affordability and now are facing even higher levels of uncertainty," said Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen in a press release. President Trump's tariff negotiations have sent mortgage rates on a roller coaster ride, with double-digit fluctuations in recent weeks and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage sitting closer to 7% as of Thursday. That has dampened the traditional spring home buying surge the industry anticipated would prove more fruitful than recent years. Sellers last month put more homes on the market than were sold, according to Zillow, with 265,000 listings moving into a pending sale versus 375,000 new properties on the market. Other market research posted Thursday painted a similarly difficult start to spring. Redfin indicated annual median home price growth of 2.6% for the four weeks ended April 13, alongside the number of total homes for sale rising 12.3% compared to the same time last year. The real estate brokerage said a third of Americans are delaying plans to make a major purchase over Trump' s tariff policies.  Fannie Mae, in a brief update to its Home Price Index, also reported home prices rising just 1.4% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the end of 2024. While prices are still rising on an annual basis, the first quarter's 5.3% annual growth was just a tick above the prior 5.2% mark. A Remax report found silver linings in the housing market, despite sales down 1.4% in March against the year ago period. The brokerage attributed a 23% surge in sales in March from February to that growing inventory. "With a relatively good supply of homes for sale, and rates holding with signs of some improvement, many buyers are finding current market conditions to be the most favorable they've seen in the past few years," said Remax Holdings CEO Erik Carlson in a statement. Homes sold in March had a median sales price of $435,000, according to the company, an average increase of $8,000 from February. Most major U.S. housing markets are still seeing home value increases, according to Thursday's reports, although inventory is skyrocketing in some locales. Remax discovered active listings soaring 25.3% in Washington, D.C. from February to March; Zillow reported a 35% year-over-year listing increase for the city. The nation's capital could be feeling the impact of the Trump administration's cost-cutting measures. Although hiring in February was up nationwide, the numbers may not reflect the local impact of widespread government cuts and other tariff-induced variability.

After two years of net production losses, independent mortgage bankers ended 2024 in the black on their originations; however, for smaller lenders, it was a different story, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.In another piece of good news, net servicing income also increased year-over-year. It is only the third time since 2018 both sides of the business made money in the same year."Production revenues improved, and per-loan costs decreased as volume picked up, particularly in the second half of the year," said Marina Walsh, vice president of industry analysis in a press release.IMBs and bank mortgage subsidiaries made an average of $443 per loan produced during 2024, up from a loss of $1,056 during 2023. The annual profits came in a mixed-bag year for IMBs, as they lost money on production as a group during the first and fourth quarters.Origination profitability was not universal, Walsh added."For example, for the sub-group of lenders with an annual production volume of less than $500 million in 2024, average net production losses continued for the third consecutive year," she said. "It has been difficult to spread the fixed costs of originating loans over lower volume."How mortgage originators performed in 2024Originators made an average 10 basis points on every loan, versus a loss of 37 basis points in 2023. That was still below the historic average (since 2008) of 47 basis points of profit.Production revenues were $11,520 per loan in 2024, up from $10,202 in 2023, while expenses decreased to $11,076 compared with $11,258 over the same time frame.Mortgage bankers lost $645 per loan originated in the first quarter, before turning profits of $693 and $701 in the subsequent two periods. But in the fourth quarter, industry participants dropped back to an average loss of $40 per loan, according to the quarterly data releases from the organization.How mortgage servicers performed in 2024On the servicing side, net financial income, which includes net servicing operational income, mortgage servicing right amortization plus gains and losses on MSR valuations, was $301 per loan last year, up from $263 for 2023.Across the IMBs in the study, 68% reported pretax net financial profits in 2024, taking into account all of the business lines. This is almost double the 36% in 2023 and above the 53% in 2022.But without the money made on servicing, only 56% of IMBs would have been profitable last year, the MBA said.

Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr.Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg A Federal Reserve governor called on core banking system providers to do more to safeguard community banks against emerging cyber threats. Fed Gov. Michael Barr said core providers have not invested sufficiently in systems to identify fraudulent activity to keep up with the rapid evolution of new and more sophisticated methods of attack."It's not clear to me that we're making progress in relation to the risk. The risks are growing faster than the progress that we've seen, and in my experience in other areas, the core service providers are pretty slow to bring new technology to bear in these ways," Barr said. "It's an ongoing risk, an important risk to monitor, and one where we're likely to see significant problems for quite some time. I know that small banks would like to be in a much better place than they are."Barr said smaller banks are still struggling to deal with check fraud and rudimentary scams. When it comes to more sophisticated schemes, including so-called "deepfakes" — voices and videos produced by generative artificial intelligence programs, or gen AI  — these institutions and their systems providers are woefully behind.He added that the vulnerabilities created by this lack of progress are particularly dire for individual small banks."The financial system is only as secure as its weakest link," Barr said. "It is often the case that even though smaller institutions may be a smaller target, they also tend to have less robust cyber practices, and that can create enormous risk for them as individual institutions, for their customers and for the broader financial system."For core providers, he said the objective is not just to create better protection systems, but also to deliver them at scale and at a cost point that makes them obtainable. "It's really important that the core service providers who they work with for so many of their systems invest sufficiently in cyber defense and bring down the cost of that cyber defense so that smaller institutions can actually afford to deploy it," Barr said. "We have a very long way to go in that regard."Barr's comments came during a Thursday conference on cybersecurity hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In prepared remarks, the former Fed vice chair for supervision called for banks and regulators alike to get better acquainted with deepfake technology to understand the risks it poses to the banking system and how those threats might be mitigated. Barr noted that many banks rely on voice detection as a form of identity verification and warned that such systems could be vulnerable to deepfake gen AI attacks. Because of this, he urged banks and service providers to invest in more advanced authentication processes, including "facial recognition, voice analysis and behavioral biometrics."He also flagged concerns about the presence of gen AI in investment platforms, noting that trading systems that rely on the technology could be vulnerable to collusion and "herding" practices that ultimately prove harmful to markets. Barr acknowledged that his latest comments on gen AI were "darker" than some of his previous discussions of the technology. He added that the innovation holds great promise not only in the financial sector but also the medical field, the energy sector and other critical parts of the economy. Barr said regulators should not stifle the use of AI innovations, but rather harness them as a means for keeping up with bad actors or simply tracking traditional banking risks and vulnerabilities more efficiently."Regulators should consider how we could leverage AI technologies ourselves, including to enhance our ability to monitor and detect patterns of fraudulent activity at regulated institutions in real time," he said. "This could help provide early warnings to affected institutions and broader industry participants, as well as to protect our own systems."Barr also called for regulators to team up with law enforcement entities to better catch fraudsters that rely on gen AI technology and enforce punishments that serve sufficient deterrents. "This includes targeting the upstream organizations that benefit from illegal action and strengthening anti-money-laundering laws to disrupt illicit fund flows and freeze assets related to cybercrime," he said. "The fear of severe legal consequences could help to deter bad actors from pursuing AI-driven fraud schemes in the first place."

Banks are still optimistic that deregulation under the Trump administration will help offset some of the recent turbulence from recent tariff policies. But there's a caveat.Fifth Third Bancorp CEO Tim Spence said Thursday that while the government will likely ease up on burdensome rules around capital and liquidity, the new regime will also mean banks are going to "need to compete with everybody," as certain compliance requirements for nonbanks are also rolled back."It's important for all of us to continue to try to get the overheads down in the business. And to be able to make the investments that we've got to continue to make in AI and technology and all of the other things that are so important to the way that we're going to serve customers in the future," Spence said on an analyst call to discuss the bank's first-quarter earnings. "There's no question in my mind that in the future, there are going to be fewer banks than there are today."Spence said that he thinks bank deregulation, which he hopes would expand the industry's flexibility to originate more loans, is "really critical" to "reignite private sector growth." The Cincinnati, Ohio-based bank has been focusing its own investment efforts on remixing its branch network in the Southeast in efforts to nab more low-cost deposits, along with its commercial payments business. Spence added that Fifth Third has kept a lid on expenses, though, and that some of those gains have come from investments that the bank has made in technology and automation.As uncertainty weighs on the macroeconomic outlook, Spence said that the $213 billion-asset bank can tighten its spending, and still deliver the net interest income it had guided for in January — which would be a record for the bank."We don't believe that it's credible to think that the capital markets will recover sufficiently to cover up the softness that we're all going to see in the first half of the year," Spence said. "So if fees are down, expenses are going to come down as well."Fifth Third expects loan growth for the year coming in higher than previously anticipated — making it an outlier in the banking sector — while fee income will likely fall short of expectations from January. In the first quarter, the bank posted earnings per share of 71 cents, above consensus analyst estimates of 70 cents. Net interest income, of $1.4 billion, is up about 3.6% from the previous year, with full-year guidance predicting a 5%-6% climb between 2024 and 2025.The initial magnitude of tariff announcements surprised Fifth Third's commercial clients, Spence said. Now, those companies are generally holding off on making structural changes to their supply chains, and are instead focused on passing prices down to consumers, Spence said.But while inflation may go up, he said unemployment has been less of a concern in conversations he's having.The market volatility has also spurred Fifth Third clients to put major strategic moves, like acquisitions, on hold, Spence said. He said one of the bank's's clients, a pipe manufacturer, just paused a deal amid a lack of clarity for future policies and turbulence."His comment was, 'If I do the deal today,' — and they were close — 'I'm either a hero or an idiot. And I don't like decisions where there are binary outcomes,'" Spence said. "So the first thing is, there just has to be some certainty."Chief Financial Officer Bryan Preston added that Fifth Third hasn't seen a sharp turn in credit quality, and the bank has been building on reserves due to the economic forecast. The bank's provision for loan losses of $174 million is up 84% from a year ago.The bank has also been working on a bottom-up review of its commercial portfolio."Today, we are focused on what is in front of us as opposed to what is behind," Spence said, noting it's not clear what the final tariff policies, or their effects, will be. "What we can do is to ensure that our business mix is more naturally resilient, run our balance sheet defensively, and retain optionality so that we can react quickly as conditions change."

Mortgage rates increased more than 20 basis points this week, but remained below the 7% mark, according to Freddie Mac.The gain matches that in the latest Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Application Survey, but other rate trackers, which posted gains last week, moved in the other direction.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.83% on April 17, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported. This was up from last week when it averaged 6.62%, but below one year ago, when it averaged 7.1%.A similar gain was seen in the 15-year FRM, which was 6.03%, for the week, up from 5.82% in the prior period. A year ago, it averaged 6.39%. It is the first time since the end of February that this product is over 6%."The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ticked up but remains below the 7% threshold for the 13th consecutive week," said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist in a press release. "At this time last year…purchase application demand was 13% lower than it is today, a clear sign that this year's spring home buying season is off to a stronger start."The rate snapshot does not tell the story, however, of what mortgage bankers have been dealing with."Since the 'Tariff Tantrum,' we have seen an extremely volatile rate environment which has not only been impacted by rising Treasury yields but also by credit spreads that have been widening to compensate investors for the additional risk in the marketplace due to this volatility," said David Adamo, CEO of Luxury Mortgage.The 7% level is "a key psychological threshold for many buyers," just looking at the headlines, said Samir Dedhia, CEO of One Real Mortgage."This week's movement follows continued volatility in the bond and equity markets, driven by persistent inflation concerns, uncertainty around proposed tariffs, and shifting expectations about future Federal Reserve policy," Dedhia said. "After last week's stronger-than-expected inflation data pushed rates higher, we've seen some easing in recent days."The good news for the markets is that the 10-year Treasury, which is considered in pricing 30-year FRMs, has backed down from its post-tariff announcement highs, but is still elevated compared with the sub-4% level on April 4.The yield on the 10-year was at 4.29% as of 11 a.m. on Thursday morning, down 30 basis points from the April 11 high point of 4.59%.Zillow's rate tracker on Thursday morning was at 6.93%, unchanged from Wednesday and down from last week's average of 7.05%.Lender Price data for the 30-year FRM posted on the National Mortgage News website put the rate at 6.861%, compared with 6.947% a week ago.Optimal Blue's latest data is for Wednesday, when the 30-year FRM averaged 6.774%, versus 6.895% on April 11, the last of the three-day period where this tracker was over 6.8%."Mortgage rates are still moving in reaction to the news of the day, though with smaller swings than in the aftermath of the liberation day on-again/off-again tariff announcements," said Kara Ng, senior economist at Zillow Home Loans in a Wednesday evening statement. "While daily mortgage rates seem to have eased in the last few days, rates are off the recent dip and back up to the levels from mid-February."Ng reiterated her statement of the past few weeks, saying recent events make it hard to predict which way mortgage rates will move in the future with any conviction.Zillow still expects rates to end the year in the mid-6% range. The MBA just raised its outlook to 7% for the second quarter and for 6.7% in the fourth quarter.March's dip in mortgage rates brought more sellers in than buyers, Ng added."Buyers have plenty of options and more time to decide, but the recent reversal in mortgage rates presents new challenges for buyers," Ng said. "Smaller stock portfolios may make high down payments more difficult to reach."The stock market gyrations are not just impacting the ability or need to use portfolios to fund down payments but also overall buyer confidence in the housing market, a recent Redfin study found.

The state of Ohio is accusing United Wholesale Mortgage of "duping" thousands of its residents via an alleged scheme between the megalender and "loyalist brokers" to only do business with the company.As a result, Ohioans have been pushed into paying "millions of dollars in improper fees and excessive interest rates on their mortgage loans," a suit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost claims.The litigation, lodged April 16, says that Ohio borrowers are not presented with the best loan option partially because of UWM's controversial "All-In" ultimatum and the "Lock In" provision, which prevents brokers from shopping rates once they've locked-in a rate with UWM.This suit is reminiscent of a federal class-action filed in 2024 by borrowers who similarly claim that UWM holds independent brokers captive, contributing to consumers being overcharged by hundreds of millions of dollars. The case is specifically cited in the 122-page complaint filed by the Ohio attorney general."Thousands of unsuspecting borrowers did not obtain any such 'independent' advice or representation," Yost said. "Rather, they were ensnared in UWM's scheme, and steered, without their knowledge, to UWM's higher-priced loans."Ohio's suit claims UWM violated the state's consumer protection laws, including its Residential Mortgage Lending Act and its Corrupt Practices Act.UWM did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.An analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data included in the lawsuit shows that over the past three years, UWM issued nearly $605 million in Ohio mortgages through brokers who referred 99% of their business to the company. In 2023, Ohio brokers sent 99% or more of their mortgages to UWM, which the state attorney general claims is worth at least $215 million.Ohio borrowers who obtained a mortgage loan through UWM broker partners in 2022 paid "hundreds of dollars more in origination fees" compared to other homebuyers, the complaint said. The Ohio lawsuit, just like the 2024 class action, takes aim at the firm's sponsored website, known as mortgagematchup.com. It dubs the site a "tool for UWM to compel brokers to steer loans to UWM" because getting featured on the page increases online searchability. "The message to brokers is simple: the more you steer borrowers to UWM, the more UWM will steer borrowers to you and thus increase your deal flow and revenue," the lawsuit read. Loyal UWM broker partners are also lavished with gifts and parks, such as meals, live entertainment and vacations to Costa Rica at the wholesale lender's expense, the suit alleges.Concurrently, UWM spends ample time and resources monitoring its databases to ensure that brokers stay loyal to it. Litigation states that brokers have reported receiving "harassing communications from UWM employees" inquiring why the loan volume sent to it compared to other wholesale lenders has changed.Meanwhile, brokers who violate the "All-In" mandate are punished, the suit claims, citing  at least five lawsuits brought against various broker firms seeking damages for breaches of the ultimatum. "Buying a home is hard enough without having to worry about a lender scheming behind your back," Yost said. "This predatory business practice has no place in Ohio."Despite ongoing public criticism of UWM's ultimatum, the megalender has been successful in defending its "All-in" mandate in court.Most recently, two separate federal judges in Michigan refused to dismiss UWM's All-In litigation filed against two brokerages: Atlantic Trust Mortgage and District Lending.Both judges overseeing the two lawsuits ruled that Atlantic Trust and District Lending were bound by the wholesale broker agreement with UWM, despite not signing the ultimatum, because they continued doing business with the Pontiac, Michigan-based company.Other brokerages, including America's Moneyline and The Okavage Group, that were also sued for breaking UWM's All-In ultimatum and thereafter countersued, face an uphill battle against the megalender.A Michigan federal judge tossed AML's countersuit for fraud in March 2024, citing another court's decision where a judge earlier that year was unconvinced by The Okavage Group's similar arguments.