The PHH Mortgage $875 settlement stems from how private mortgage insurance (PMI) was arranged for certain PHH-originated or PHH-acquired home loans between 2007 and 2009, a period when many borrowers—especially those with smaller down payments—were required by lenders to buy PMI. The lawsuit alleges PHH and related entities used “captive” mortgage reinsurance arrangements, meaning an affiliated reinsurer participated in the insurance risk and allegedly received payments tied to PMI referrals. Plaintiffs claim these structures functioned as improper kickbacks that could have influenced which mortgage insurer was selected and how much consumers ultimately paid, even though the defendants deny wrongdoing. The case was filed to challenge these alleged kickbacks under consumer-protection theories commonly associated with federal anti-kickback rules in real estate transactions, particularly the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), which generally prohibits giving or accepting anything of value in exchange for referrals of “settlement services” like mortgage insurance. Its significance is that it targets a behind-the-scenes incentive system that borrowers typically don’t see on closing documents, and it results in a standardized, per-loan payment ($875) to eligible borrowers who submit a timely claim (by August 11, 2026) and whose loan/PMI information matches administrator and lender records. More broadly, the settlement sits within a long-running wave of litigation and enforcement scrutiny over captive reinsurance, lender-placed or lender-influenced insurance, and other mortgage “fee stack” practices that flourished around the housing boom and financial crisis era. Similar disputes across the industry have focused on whether reinsurance premiums reflect real risk transfer and services—or whether they are effectively referral rewards that raise costs while evading disclosure—making this case another example of how RESPA and related state consumer laws are used to police conflicts of interest in mortgage origination and servicing markets.