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Wells Fargo agreed to pay a $250 million fine after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) charged the company with failing to improve oversight of its mortgage business and comply with a 2018 agreement to fix decades of internal lapses, The Hill reported. Under a consent order issued by the OCC, the bank agreed to take several steps to improve risk management and customer protections within its home lending operations, three years after Wells Fargo paid a record-breaking fine for a series of damaging lapses. Wells Fargo agreed to a consent order in 2018 with the OCC and agreed to pay a $1 billion fine after failing to make promised adjustments to customers’ interest rates on mortgages and automobile loans, and forced millions of auto loan customers to buy unnecessary insurance products. Those lapses cost Wells Fargo customers millions of dollars and in some cases their cars or homes. “Wells Fargo has not met the requirements of the OCC’s 2018 action against the bank. This is unacceptable,” said acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu in a statement. The consent order also bans Wells Fargo from transferring any of the mortgages it collects payments on out of its portfolio. It also bars the bank from acquiring the rights to service residential mortgages, with few exceptions, until the OCC is satisfied with its progress.

Apartment rents were up in August from a year earlier in all the top 30 U.S. metro areas, the first time that’s happened since the start of the pandemic, according to a new report by Yardi, Bloomberg News reported. The national average rent in multi-family buildings rose 10.3% from a year earlier to $1,539 — the first double-digit rise in the dataset’s history — after a $25 increase in August, the real-estate firm said. Over the past 10 years, the average pace of growth has been 2%. This year’s surge in housing costs has added a new dimension to the debate over how long pandemic inflation will last, with signs that it’s picking up speed at a time other COVID-driven price spikes — like the one in used cars — may be topping out. Earlier in the crisis, the onset of work-from-home drove a flight from big cities like New York and San Francisco, pushing costs down. Rents in those two metro areas remain short of pre-pandemic levels, even though they’re now rising again on an annual basis. The spread of the delta variant of COVID-19, pushing back return-to-office-dates at some companies, may be one drag. Single-family homes that were built-to-rent saw even bigger increases, with prices up 13.9% from a year earlier. Those gains have triggered a surge in interest among institutional investors in housing as an asset class. Yardi said that’s likely to continue because “as Millennials reach home-buying age, the price of single-family homes continues to be out of reach for many.”

The House Financial Services Committee will be holding a hearing at noon EDT on Friday titled "Protecting Renters During the Pandemic: Reviewing Reforms to Expedite Emergency Rental Assistance." Committee members and witnesses will testify on H.R. 5196, the "Expediting Assistance to Renters and Landlords Act of 2021," and H.R. 3913, the "Renter Protection Act of 2021." For more information, including the full witness list and a link to the live webcast of the hearing, please click here.

A Los Angeles megamansion once expected to list for $500 million has gone into receivership after the owner defaulted on more than $165 million in loans and debt, according to court filings, CNBC.com reported. The 105,000-square-foot Bel Air estate, known as “The One,” was placed into receivership by the Los Angeles County Superior Court and is expected to be relisted at a lower price in the coming months, according to people familiar with the property. The receivership marks a stunning reversal for “The One” and its flashy developer, Nile Niami, who often touted the property as his “life mission” and “the biggest, most expensive home in the urban world.” Expected to hit the market in 2017 with a price tag of $500 million, “The One” has been dogged by repeated delays, funding problems and changing strategies. The home stretches like an ultra-modern palace over eight acres on a hilltop overlooking LA. It has nine bedrooms, multiple kitchens, a nightclub, four-lane bowling alley, salon, gym, 50-seat theater, a running track and an underground garage for 50 cars, with two auto turntables. Its seven water features include multiple pools, a jacuzzi and a moat that surrounds the house. The master bedroom suite is 4,000 square feet. Every door in the house is electric, along with all the toilets. Niami had planned a “jellyfish room” and ice bar but both proved too costly.

New York lawmakers extended the state’s eviction and foreclosure freeze through Jan. 15, providing relief to renters, homeowners and small businesses that have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Newly appointed Governor Kathy Hochul called the state legislature into a rare extraordinary session on Wednesday to renew the ban on residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures, which ended on Aug. 31. The legislation increases the amount of hardship funds available to tenants and landlords to $250 million from $100 million and creates a $25 million fund for legal services for renters facing evictions. The legislation also aims to get around a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a federal rent relief program that would have protected most New Yorkers who couldn’t pay their rent until at least October. The ruling cited “irreparable harm” suffered by landlords and the lack of authority afforded to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to impose a rental moratorium under a decades-old federal law. To comply with the ruling, New York’s legislation provides more relief funds for landlords and allows them to evict renters under certain circumstances.

Jessica Simpson’s family offered to buy the singer-turned-fashion entrepreneur’s brand out of bankruptcy for $65 million, a lawyer said yesterday in court, Bloomberg News reported. Sequential Brands Group Inc., which owns the rights to the Jessica Simpson fashion collection, filed bankruptcy on Tuesday with plans to hold an auction for its aging brands. The day before the company sought court protection from creditors, Sequential made a tentative deal with the Simpson family, company attorney Joshua Brody told the judge overseeing the chapter 11 case in Wilmington, Delaware. The company will try to get a final agreement in the coming weeks to have the Simpson family act as the so-called stalking horse bidder at an auction, Brody said. Two other current partners, Galaxy Active and Centric Brands, have also agreed to serve as lead bidders for other assets, setting a floor price for the brands they are trying to buy. Should a judge approve those agreements, Galaxy Active would make a binding, initial offer of $333 million for the so-called Active Division; Centric Brands, which holds a long-term license for Joe’s Jeans, would offer $42 million for the denim and sportswear label.