Federal regulators have imposed restrictions on the mortgage businesses of six banks. The restrictions were announced on Wednesday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) against JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, HSBC, Santander and EverBank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed restrictions on the mortgage-servicing operations of six banks who failed to fully comply with enforcement orders related to past home foreclosure abuses.

The penalties on the six banks involve restrictions on mortgage-servicing operations, including limits on the banks' ability to acquire residential mortgage-servicing rights or outsource their existing mortgage-servicing rights.

A chart issued by the OCC showed that the restrictions are tougher for Wells Fargo and HSBC than for the other banks.

The federal regulators said that the banks haven't fully complied with requirements of the 2011 enforcement orders issued by the government. They abused the foreclosure process after the collapse of the housing market.

The 2011 orders sparked a controversial investigation into big banks' foreclosure practices to gauge how many borrowers should be compensated. The case was known as the robo-signing scandal, which prompted a government investigation and eventually an $8.5 billion settlement between the OCC and 15 banks.

The regulators found that some lenders rushed the foreclosure process without carefully reviewing documents.

Simultaneously, the OCC lifted its enforcement orders against Bank of America, Citigroup and PNC as they found that they were in compliance with the orders. At the same time, the agency lifted its enforcement orders against Bank of America, Citigroup and PNC, finding them to be in compliance with the orders.