Kate Berry

Regulators' recent moves to encourage mortgage lenders to relax standards have reignited a contentious debate.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley reiterated calls Wednesday for the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to offer principal reductions to distressed borrowers and to participate in nonprofit home buyback programs.

Green Tree's bad report card comes as regulators and lawmakers are scrutinizing nonbank servicers that have aggressively purchased mortgage servicing rights from banks.

The government-sponsored enterprises just went a long way toward encouraging lenders to make more loans to borrowers with lower credit scores.

Lenders and loan officers are increasingly using social media to scout for customers, raising a host of compliance concerns, from preventing unauthorized use of brands to monitoring employee communications.

The government-sponsored enterprises remain profitable, but executives are raising fresh concerns about their ability to withstand a recession because of restrictions on raising capital.

Brokers of servicing rights say the overall market remains robust, despite suggestions by Ocwen's William Erbey last week that trades had ground to a halt. Trading of seriously delinquent portfolios has slowed on concerns about increased liability.

Regulator Benjamin Lawsky is concerned that Hubzu, a website run by Ocwen's Alitsource affiliate, charges inflated fees "through conflicted business relationships" at the expense of mortgage investors and strapped homeowners.

Mortgage bondholders have long complained to regulators that the national mortgage settlement gave large bank servicers credit for principal reductions and loan modifications they did not pay for themselves.

B of A caught observers off guard by announcing $6 billion in mortgage litigation expenses, but the move is an attempt to convince analysts and investors that there is an end in sight to its crisis-era legal woes. It just might work.

Ginnie Mae has halted the transfer of mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America to a nonbank servicer because of missing documents. The agency is asking the top servicers for an inventory of loans with missing documents.

After a year in which bankers have voiced steady opposition to the qualified mortgage rule, more than a third now say they will make non-QM loans in targeted markets, a major reversal from the industry's past stance.

After slogging through several quarters of high expenses and shrinking profits, some lenders are now selling mortgage servicing rights to raise cash to cover payroll and expenses, industry sources say.

Rising home prices have emboldened some lenders to search for remaining underwater borrowers who have not refinanced. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but with home purchases scare, lenders have few other options.

With more reliable loan data, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have greater confidence that borrowers would not default. In return, lenders would receive a juicy carrot: fewer buyback requests.

The settlement monitor gave the banks credit for $20 billion in relief – less than half the total provided, since only partial credit was given for breaks other than principal reduction.

In the current tough mortgage environment, some lenders are willing to take the risk of lending to foreign nationals. The loans don't conform to regulations that took effect in January and typically are held on banks' balance sheets.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to address the growing problem of vacant and abandoned properties that banks and mortgage servicers have walked away from to avoid maintaining the homes.

The increased scrutiny, mortgage bankers complain, would end recent attempts to provide home loans to borrowers with weaker credit, something the FHA has been trying to spur for years.

After halting an Ocwen deal to purchase mortgage-servicing rights from Wells Fargo, New York's Department of Financial Services is turning its attention to another nonbank servicer, Nationstar.