Compliance & Regulation

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have again delayed implementation of new mortgage and appraisal delivery requirements in the 'Uniform Mortgage Data Program', according to lender updates released Thursday.

The slowdown in failures has led the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to pull back on its spending.

The Treasury Department will gather more detailed information from residential servicers on their proprietary loan modifications.

A new insurance product designed by Bakerjian Insurance Services aims “to protect lenders against potential damage” from repurchase demands from investors that may have originally been caused by fraudsters.The Novato, Calif.-based company said it created Lenders Misrepresentation Insurance to serve as a policy that protects lenders from buyback requests that are based on “material financial misrepresentation” in the borrower’s loan file.

The more aggressive lenders are in efforts to gather and share fraud data, the more effective their risk control and prevention results will be. At least that is the expectation of some insiders.

In the well-known balcony scene in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” a love-struck Juliet asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”While that might be true for teenagers and roses, names are a first step for bankers to establish a critical component in lending decisions: the identity of the person seeking a loan.

Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, in a new report, blame government policies of providing mortgage credit to underserved borrowers as being a chief ingredient behind the nation's housing bubble.

The former president of a now-defunct title agency faces 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count each of wire fraud and insurance fraud.

Outgoing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank sharply criticized incoming chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus on Wednesday, ridiculing the Alabama Republican for reportedly saying "Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks."

Bank of America Corp. has begun potential settlement discussions with large institutional investors who bought MBS that later underperformed, causing losses at these entities, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.