Compliance & Regulation

The American Bankers Association is urging the Federal Reserve Board to drydock a major Truth in Lending Act proposal because it pre-dates passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and no longer fits into the mortgage regulatory scheme mandated by the legislation.

A Congressional Budget Office report has analyzed various proposals for housing finance reform, saying “the weaknesses inherent in the precrisis model may argue against returning to that model.”

New federal guidelines will significantly curb the use of automated valuation models in the appraisal process, says default management and valuation firm Integrated Asset Services, but they could also lead to more use of “hybrid” models.

Making loans for the Federal Housing Administration could become a higher-cost, but also higher-volume, business if an advocacy group succeeds in stamping out what is now a common industry practice.

Anyone expecting a quick and narrow resolution of mortgage servicers' troubles from foreclosure process failures probably hasn't talked to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who heads the 50-state coalition investigating the industry.

The Federal Reserve Board is revising an interim final rule it approved in September to make changes to the disclosures required for interest-only, payment-option and 5/1 hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages.

On Dec. 8, Maria Quijada Ramirez of Bakersfield, Calif., was arrested at the home of a relative joining her husband and real estate agent daughter who already are in custody and awaiting trial. She was wanted on a $1 million arrest warrant in connection with an alleged $4.1 million mortgage fraud scheme.

Its Mortgagee Review Board has fined WR Starkey Mortgage $223,000 for violations of Federal Housing Administration lending requirements, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Especially in times of crisis debt collectors may not be on customers’ favorite list but once a fraudster takes the place of a legitimate collector customers and their financial services providers are victims of financial abuse.Such risk becomes even higher during an economic crisis where the number of debtors tends to grow.

While mortgage fraud is not at the levels it was during the middle years of this decade, it is still having a large impact on the industry.Figures just released by CoreLogic estimate the fraud loss for 2010 to be $11 billion, down from $14 billion in 2009.