Compliance & Regulation

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance late this week issued a cease and desist order against PennyMac Loan Services, Calabasas, Calif., the servicing arm of the publicly traded mortgage firm.

A plan to reduce federal budget deficits and scale back the mortgage interest deduction garnered the support of 11 of 18 members on the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

The quality of residential loans funded this year is slipping compared to 2009, according to a new report from Quality Mortgage Services LLC, a third party vendor that works on compliance and other issues.

Federal regulators took another beating on Capitol Hill this week for not getting ahead of problems in the mortgage servicing industry and not taking greater steps to stem foreclosures.

As regulators try to collaborate on new securitization rules, a fissure has emerged in bankers' own thinking on the subject.A united industry had lobbied Congress to exempt extra-safe loans from retention requirements in the Dodd-Frank Act.

Federal regulators issued guidelines late this week clarifying accepted procedures for real estate appraisals and evaluations.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs to establish "clear goals that make sense to the American people," according to Elizabeth Warren who has been charged by President Obama to set up the new agency.

In a sign that the banking business is bouncing off the bottom of the economic trough, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is ready to start insuring new charters.

Revealing that federal banking agencies have found significant "structural problems" in the mortgage servicing industry, Federal Reserve Gov. Dan Tarullo is calling for the creation of national foreclosure standards.

FDIC chairman Sheila Bair is calling on Treasury officials to streamline the loan modification process and require writedowns of second mortgages.