Christine Baker
Board Administrator Username: Admin
Post Number: 863 Registered: 08-2002
| Posted on Monday, May 12, 2003 - 11:01 pm: |
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Wells Fargo cheers mortgage ruling http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/10/news/companies/wellsfargo.reut/ No. 4 bank says U.S. court rules in its favor in dispute with California over interest payments. May 10, 2003: 6:07 AM EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co., the No. 4 U.S. bank, said it received a favorable ruling from a federal judge which effectively ends a mortgage-related legal battle with the state of California. The bank, based in San Francisco, said a U.S. District Judge in Sacramento, Garland Burrell, ruled Friday that federal law supersedes state law governing first mortgage loan interest payments. Last week, California said it revoked Wells Fargo's state mortgage lending license because the bank's lending unit charges interest on mortgages too early. The state's Department of Corporations said Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc. is charging interest more than one day before the mortgages are actually recorded in county clerks' offices, violating state law. California said the overcharges amount to about $200 per mortgage. Wells Fargo originated or bought nearly 350,000 mortgage loans in California last year, and funds about one in eight American homes financed annually. The judge's decision appeared to cap a months-long battle over whether Wells Fargo must abide by California's lending rules, or more lenient federal rules. "The judge's ruling upheld Wells Fargo's contention that federal law pre-empts a California state law that prohibits the charging of interest on first mortgages more than one day before the mortgage is recorded," Wells Fargo said in a news release. "It confirms what we and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have said all along -- that national banks and their operating subsidiaries can conduct mortgage business in California without a state license," Wells Fargo Chairman Richard Kovacevich said in a statement.
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