Compliance & Regulation

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals said it will sue the Federal Reserve over its looming loan officer compensation rule, charging that the regulation is illegal and should be withdrawn because the agency "failed to demonstrate even a remote correlation between a mortgage loan originator's compensation and abusive, deceptive or unfair practices."

Thanks to rising interest rates the value of mortgage servicing rights has increased roughly 15% since the end of the third quarter, according to Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver.

The Obama administration should speed up the sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios to reduce taxpayer risk and capture "unrealized gains" in the assets, according to Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J.

Who will take on the catastrophic risk associated with making mortgages, a risk that has flared twice since 1989 and has caused the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in losses?

The confluence of GSE reforms and risk retention rules is forcing the Obama administration to consider ways to clamp down on the Federal Housing Administration program to prevent an explosion in its insurance market share.

A California appeals court has dealt mortgage servicers another setback by letting a borrower pursue a fraud claim because she was promised a loan modification, but got pushed into foreclosure.

They've been called "braindead," "negligent," and "otiose." But some trustees of mortgage-backed securities are proving useful to investors after all in repurchase fights.

Republican leaders on the House Financial Services Committee are keeping an eye on federal regulators as they consider attaching national servicing standards to a risk retention rule.

On Jan. 28, Federal Housing Administration Commissioner David H. Stevens extended the temporary waiver of the agency's "anti-flipping rule." The extension is intended to accelerate the resale of foreclosed upon homes in neighborhoods struggling to overcome possible property abandonment and blight.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and district attorneys have created two new programs developed by the Financial Crime Task Force to stop mortgage fraud transactions from taking place in the five boroughs.