COMPLIANCE CONVERSATIONS TRACK: Servicing Challenges

Wednesday, May 14, 2025 3:30 PM-4:45 PM Sapphire Ballroom B
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This session features a moderator-facilitated discussion where attendees ask questions and exchange information to learn how peers are approaching challenges in servicing. Facilitators examine key topics that raise regulatory risk, including servicing and related fees, escrow account administration, default servicing and loss mitigation, and ongoing focus on FCRA and credit furnishing activities. Additional topics include LEP compliance, exam findings, and UDAAP violations.

Speakers

Facilitator

  • Photo of Anoush Garakani, Esq.
    Anoush Garakani, Esq.

    Partner, Alston & Bird, LLP

    Anoush Garakani, co-leader of Alston & Bird’s Consumer Financial Services Team, advises on mortgage banking and consumer finance and concentrates on counseling clients on compliance with federal and state consumer financial protection laws and regulations. He has been recognized since 2021 by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® for his work in Corporate Governance and Compliance Law. Clients trust Anoush’s guidance when facing challenges surrounding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Mortgage Servicing Rules, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Truth in Lending Act, and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. He is experienced with federal and state prohibitions against unfair and deceptive acts or practices and laws and regulations related to mortgage origination and servicing, debt collection, retail installment sales contracts, telemarketing, and use of autodialer systems. Anoush also assists clients with performing regulatory compliance due diligence for investments or acquisitions related to consumer financial products, such as mortgage loans and secured and unsecured consumer loans. Anoush clerked for the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Financial Practices.

    • Speakers

  • Photo of Michael Merritt
    Michael Merritt

    SVP, Default & Customer Care, BOK Financial

    Michael manages the default servicing area at BOK Financial, managing the collection, loss mitigation, foreclosure, bankruptcy, property preservation, post-sale, claims, and loss analysis teams. Prior to joining BOK Financial, he oversaw mortgage sub-servicers at Goldman Sachs and managed in a variety of areas at Mr. Cooper Mortgage primarily in Customer Care, Loss Mitigation, and First Line of Defense. Michael holds an MBA from Texas Tech University, a Master of Legal Studies in Risk Management from Texas A&M School of Law and a bachelor’s in Organizational Leadership from Arizona State.

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