Compliance & Regulation

The U.S. Department of the Treasury ("Treasury") gives notice of the establishment of a Privacy Act System of Records primarily for the benefit of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which will become active July 21. Comments are being sought until Feb. 9. This new system of keeping records will also become effective Feb. 9.

If there hasn't been enough upheaval in the way mortgage originators and appraisers interact in the past few years, the next 12 months will see possibly the greatest changes to that relationship since the passage of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989.

Mortgage servicers that provide troubled borrowers with a 'single point of contact' to help them through loan modifications and workouts avoid costly delays and customer confusion, according to a Fannie Mae executive.

Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner can continue to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if the Senate does not confirm the president's pick to head the agency, according to an opinion issued by two Inspector Generals.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is in the process of approving another one-year suspension of its anti-flipping rule on foreclosed properties bought with FHA loans.

Last year's robo-signing scandals delayed tens of thousands of foreclosures in the 23 states where the process is handled in court. A new controversy could complicate foreclosures in the other 27 states.

The nation's two largest mortgage servicers—Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co.—are among the most sued financial service firms in the nation, according to a new tally from Institutional Risk Analytics.

The Federal Housing Administration has stopped allowing lenders to use appraisals of model homes in a subdivision or condominium project to value units under construction.

The nation's premier mortgage trade group believes the current servicing compensation regime doesn't work anymore and is exploring different options on behalf of the industry.

The advent of Basel III and its effects on MSRs, the difficulty of hedging mortgage servicing rights, and the strain of making advances to investors are all driving the regulatory search for a new way to compensate servicers.