Compliance & Regulation

Perhaps, loan brokers should just stop battling the Federal Reserve over its loan officer compensation rule, adapt, and move on to the next stage of their career. Or as loan broker/banker Chris Sorensen put it: "This isn't as bad as people think. Once the whining and crying is over, brokers will pick their comp rate and start competing with the big boys."

An enforcement action against a bank is almost always bad news for the institution involved. But a federal bank regulators' order released Wednesday against the top 14 mortgage servicers was likely to help, not hurt, the banks, providing them with added leverage as they attempt to negotiate a separate settlement with the 50 state attorneys general and several federal agencies.

The Federal Housing Administration has fined a Brookline, Mass., lender $72,500 and ordered the firm to reimburse the agency for past insurance claims.

The banking consent agreements signed by some of the nation's largest residential servicers on Wednesday require the firms to stop the practice of "dual tracking" where at risk homeowners start the loan modification process but also are officially put into a parallel foreclosure pipeline.

Federal banking regulators Wednesday afternoon dropped their regulatory "bomb" on the nation's largest residential servicers — and two of their top outside vendors — accusing the firms of a "pattern of negligence and misconduct" tied to the processing of loans.

JPMorgan Chase saw its mortgage-related revenue get hammered in the first quarter, falling a stunning 75% to $696 million (compared to 4Q), as originations declined and the firm focused resources on its massive servicing portfolio and dealing with legal issues tied to that business.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller blasted a study Tuesday that said proposed servicer settlement terms could cost the economy $10 billion a year.

For the first time in 13 years, Georgia won't be among the top ten states for mortgage fraud when LexisNexis releases its annual MARI fraud index on May 2.

A proposed settlement with the nation’s top five residential servicers could prolong the foreclosure crisis, drive up mortgage interest rates, slow new home construction and cost $7 billion to $10 billion a year, according to a study from three top economists.

An agreement between the Obama administration and lawmakers over this year's fiscal budget includes audits of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.