Compliance & Regulation

The question of what should be done with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is drawing wildly different opinions.

A whistleblower lawsuit filed by two mortgage brokers has been unsealed in Federal District Court in Atlanta claiming that 13 banks and mortgage companies have cheated veterans out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The risk management firms AllRegs and The Prieston Group have agreed to a multiyear commitment to join forces and offer risk assessment resources to the mortgage industry.

A New York real estate developer who led a mortgage fraud conspiracy resulting in more than $98 million in losses was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to serve nine years in prison.

On Oct. 3, Mark Alan Helsing, a broker for "hard-money lenders," pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts for stealing $6.9 million from investors in a Ponzi and real estate fraud scheme, authorities said. He faces a potential term of 15 years in prison at his sentencing Dec. 5 by Superior Court Judge Craig E. Robison.

The House of Representatives this week passed a bill to assist unemployed veterans through a measure that also extends the maximum VA loan limits for three more years.

Officials from the government-sponsored enterprises continue to encourage lenders to be proactive with their appraisal and origination technology vendors in preparation for the new requirements in the Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

The government indicted a Philadelphia mortgage broker this week, accusing him of masterminding a $4 million mortgage fraud scheme that he allegedly ran through Police & Fire Federal Credit Union.

Joe Pierce doesn't hold a grudge when a farmer finds more favorable terms with a Farm Credit lender, but he isn't prepared to give up government-backed home loans as easily.

Examiners from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau soon will visit the servicing shops of the nation's largest banks to check on their handling of defaulted borrowers seeking loan modifications or entering the foreclosure process.