Compliance & Regulation

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has expelled APS Financial Corp., Austin, Texas, and barred its former president and its former broker from the industry in connection with an alleged scheme involving an elderly investor and markups on collateralized mortgage obligations as well as other types of securities.

Allstate Insurance Co. has sued Bank of America to recoup losses suffered from its purchase of over $700 million in Countrywide-issued mortgage-backed securities.

Ally Financial Inc. has agreed to pay Fannie Mae $462 million to settle repurchase demands for breaches of representations and warranties related to whole loans and private-label securities the lender sold the GSE.

Just three years ago, the very idea of a consumer protection agency was dismissed by most bankers and industry representatives as a pipe dream.

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.