Compliance & Regulation

As policymakers inch slowly toward reforming the housing finance system, the Federal Home Loan Banks and their allies have a simple message to Congress: leave the system alone.

Congress should require the Federal Home Loan Banks to pay for an explicit government guarantee on their debt, according to a former GSE regulator and congressman.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development late Wednesday said it suspended former LendAmerica president Michael Primeau from conducting any business with the agency after his admission that he engaged in a "wide-scale mortgage fraud scheme."

Quandis has developed a new Web-based application that automates short sell workflows and streamlines communication between servicers, lenders, borrowers and real estate agents.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to clarify the scope of a federal law aimed at protecting mortgage customers from being overcharged by companies that provide real estate settlement services.

The Government National Mortgage Association is making it easier for MBS issuers to pledge their servicing rights to obtain financing from warehouse lenders.

The Obama Administration expects to roll out a plan to lower barriers to refinancing in "the next couple of weeks," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told mortgage bankers at their annual convention in Chicago.

State regulators have issued guidelines to mortgage examiners on how to test state-licensed nonbanks for steering and other violations of the Federal Reserve's loan origination compensation rule.

A sample of comments in response to the SEC's rating agency reform proposals suggests the market could find itself in a situation where the government must balance its interest in oversight and control with its plans to avoid more responsibilities and liabilities. It also may need to balance its aim to restrict conflicts of interest with another reform goal involving more sharing of information and transparency.

Since being seized by the government during the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac haven't been businesses so much as government-owned mortgage utilities. That status was supposed to be temporary, but three years later, lawmakers have shown little appetite for changing it.