Compliance & Regulation

Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economist and the namesake of the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes, has been called overly pessimistic for predicting home prices could fall another 25%.

WASHINGTON—The cost of being a Federal Housing Administration-approved lender is making it difficult for many small lenders to retain their ability to table-fund FHA loans.

Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. will pay $200 million in restitution to subprime and mortgage-related bond fund investors to settle multi-regulator enforcement proceedings related to improper marketing and insufficient disclosures.

A coalition of 44 industry, consumer, community development andcivil rights groups have banded together to oppose a regulatory proposal on risk retention that they claim would increase the cost of mortgage credit for average Americans and goes beyond the intent of Congress.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will pay $153.6 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors in a complex mortgage securities transaction just as the housing market was starting to plummet.

The risk retention proposal drafted by federal regulators is likely to hinder the development of a private securitization market and make it harder to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a new paper by Moody's Analytics.

CoreLogic released a tool Monday to let servicers run automated checks on pools of loans to determine if borrowers are protected from foreclosure by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

There's an awful lot of distressed mortgage product out there. Using the MBA's most recent nationwide foreclosure percentage of 4.5% and applied to a universe of $9.5 trillion in residential holdings, that's $374 billion in distressed loans right there.

The National Credit Union Administration said Monday it has filed two suits against securities firms alleging violations of federal and state securities laws and misrepresentations in the sale of hundreds of mortgage-backed securities.

As if depressed property values squelching the real estate market weren't enough of a challenge, there is another big factor working against what are attractive interest rates: regulatory and legislative uncertainty.