Compliance & Regulation

Institutional Risk Analytics on Wednesday issued a research note that blisters the mortgage insurance industry for lobbying to get MI coverage included in the definition of 'qualified residential mortgage.'

Quicken Loans Inc. is feeling good about its recent court victory in an overtime case involving loan officers, but the feeling of elation may not last for long.

Lenox Financial Mortgage LLC, a technology, marketing, branding and workflow management corporation, was issued a cease and desist order by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance on Monday.

New, higher premiums on Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgages are meant to protect the government-backed program from the growing risk of losing money from loan defaults. But it will also make FHA mortgages more expensive, a key issue for homebuilders, where as many as 60% of new-home buyers use these types of loans to make their purchase.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has scheduled a March 29 board meeting to take up the long-await proposed rule that will determine which “high quality” mortgages are exempt from risk retention.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going to allocate half its budget to supervision and enforcement of consumer protection laws with a strong emphasis on non-bank lenders.

A Kansas thrift has teamed up with Bankers Portfolio to refinance underwater mortgages where investors have agreed to take principal writedowns that meet requirements of a Federal Housing Administration program.

Forthcoming regulations could make conventional mortgages more expensive to the wide swath of homebuyers and owners who can't put 20% down, depressing originations and potentially undermining the housing recovery.

When Congress debated a bill several years ago to create a new regulator for the government-sponsored enterprises, many parts were controversial, but nearly all lawmakers agreed that the agency should be independently funded and not subject to the appropriations process.

With the persistent aftereffects from the home loan crisis, government agencies and private litigants are increasing the pressure on banks and other lending institutions to provide loan-related information.