Compliance & Regulation

A coalition of industry groups is urging Congress to act quickly to maintain the GSE loan limit at $729,750, saying the pending expiration is hurting both home sales and application volume.

When the Federal Housing Finance Agency late Friday unveiled its $200 billion lawsuit against investment banking firms that sold faulty MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it also targeted executives who signed the original shelf registration documents on the securities in question.

The nominee to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said he prefers to use "supervisory tools" as opposed to litigation to enforce consumer protection laws.

Stephen L. Ledbetter, senior vice president of mortgage backed securities for the Government National Mortgage Association, is leaving the agency for a senior position at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to officials familiar with the matter.

The state attorneys general have a secret weapon in their negotiations with the largest mortgage servicers: the results of a HUD investigation into the banks' robo-signing practices.

Effective immediately, FHA-approved supervised lenders that are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of Thrift Supervision, or National Credit Union Administration whose consolidated assets do not meet the threshold required by those agencies for submitting audited financial statements (delineated at 12 C.F.R. § 363.1(a), 12 C.F.R. § 562.4(b)(2) and 12 C.F.R. § 715.4(c)) are not required to submit audited financial statements to FHA, nor an audited computation of net worth.

In an attempt to award the handling of certain business practices for Las Vegas condominium homeowners' associations to fraudulent companies, Steven Wark has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Of the many plays one can visualize in any football game, the "prevent defense" is one that likely causes some of the most "what the" moments. Essentially, the standard defensive line is abandoned trading rushing for coverage with seven or more players in a defensive back role, the goal of which is to prevent the opposing offense from completing a long pass by ensuring that no receiver can get behind the defense.

In the wake of the most severe episode of financial distress and the longest economic recession since the 1930s, the Dodd-Frank Act provides regulators with important new authorities to enhance financial stability and to respond to the regulatory challenges posed by large, complex systemically important financial institutions.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency late Friday filed a massive multi-billion civil suit against 17 firms that played a role in selling faulty subprime MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – including the government owned Ally Financial and Fannie's biggest customer at one time, Countrywide Financial Corp.