NASHVILLE, Tenn.–Nearly 30 major lenders, including Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage, along with mortgage software provider Optimal Blue, have been accused in a federal lawsuit of conspiring to inflate residential mortgage fees for millions of U.S. homebuyers.
The proposed class action was filed in Nashville by homeowners in Tennessee, Minnesota, Delaware and Rhode Island who claim the lenders used Optimal Blue’s pricing software to share nonpublic data on interest rates and fees, allowing them to coordinate pricing in violation of federal antitrust law, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit claims the data-sharing scheme drove up mortgage costs nationwide and “transformed the American dream of homeownership into a financial nightmare,” the report stated.
Holding Companies ‘Accountable’
Attorney Robin van der Meulen, who represents the homeowner plaintiffs, said in a statement the plaintiffs look forward to “holding accountable unfair competitors and unfair competition, no matter the mechanism.”
The lawsuit describes Plano, Texas-based Optimal Blue as “the dominant market intelligence and pricing software provider in the U.S. mortgage industry.” It alleges Optimal Blue’s tools include “daily, nonpublic, real-time, loan-level data dissected at the local level” and are used to price more than one-third of all mortgages nationwide.
The Proposed Class
The proposed class includes borrowers nationwide who obtained residential mortgages priced using Optimal Blue’s tools between October 2021 and the present, Reuters said, adding the plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages and a court order to stop the alleged price-fixing scheme involving Optimal Blue and the mortgage lenders.
