Compliance & Regulation

Opponents of risk retention are beginning to sing the praises of transparency as an alternative to requiring securitizers of mortgage-backed securities to have "skin in the game."

Last year I focused on the critical role of the FHLBank System in providing liquidity and other benefits to FHLBank members. The primary benefit of FHLBank System membership is access to a stable and reliable source of funds at attractive rates across the maturity spectrum.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will re-foreclose on all its REO properties in Michigan where the original foreclosure was conducted in the name of MERS using the state’s nonjudicial process.

A securities regulator late this week fined two Wall Street firms with each then settling the matter which involved separate allegations that the companies misrepresented and improperly supervised certain subprime RMBS delinquency figures.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $20 million and Morgan Stanley $2.35 million for improperly foreclosing on members of the military — some of whom were on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan — under a settlement with the Justice Department.

Senate Republicans late Thursday declared victory in their effort to use a procedural maneuver to prevent the president from making any recess appointments during the Memorial Day holiday.

The coming change in the conforming loan limit will have a much larger impact on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration than on those purchased or securitized by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

MERS looks like it will prevail when it comes to questions about the validity of assignments where it is involved, but some think it may "lock down" its procedures as a result of the concerns.

Origination software provider Ellie Mae released a package of new services and features this week to promote loan quality and efficiency in the loan file review process for investors and loan aggregators.

Although Congress and the White House are betting that in time the private sector will fill the void created by a diminished Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a new report from Standard & Poor's predicts that any recovery in the private label market is still years away.