Compliance & Regulation

WASHINGTON—Federal regulators may have to take a different approach in drafting a securitization rule after stumbling in their first effort to define which mortgages are safe enough to exempt from risk retention.

RealEC has rolled out a service that offers lenders the ability to push quality control from the closing table earlier in the process, with loan-level reviews during the origination process.

A top regional official from the investigative arm of HUD said Bank of America "significantly hindered" a federal investigation of the megaservicer’s foreclosure practices, according to a report from Dow Jones.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has hired Christopher C. Haspel away from the Government National Mortgage Association, giving him a top slot at the new agency, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Regulators have extended the deadline for the top 14 mortgage servicers to submit action plans required under consent orders issued in April.

Three firms have filed a class-action lawsuit representing California homeowners who have allegedly been victimized by a network of scam artists taking advantage of individuals facing foreclosure.

The Massachusetts Department of Banking told a credit union-owned mortgage lender in a new legal opinion that its mortgage officers must obtain state licenses under the SAFE Act.

Two top executives at the now defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker were sentenced late last week for their involvement in a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that brought down the top ranked nonbank lender, and its chief warehouse backer, Colonial Bank.

If there’s one issue in all of finance that sorely needs some sorting out, it’s mortgage regulation and compliance. Dodd-Frank, TILA-RESPA reform, risk retention, servicing agreements and consent orders, qualified residential mortgages, Basel III, there are seemingly dozens of new laws and regulations mortgage lenders must comply with.

The Department of Justice has more than a dozen open investigations into violations of the nation's fair lending laws -- probes that could lead to charges against mortgage firms if investigators find a pattern of abuse, according to a key department official.