Compliance & Regulation

New federal regulation is attempting to make it as difficult as possible for fraudsters to deceive homeowners. The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new rule designed to ban the collection of fees by mortgage loan modification and other foreclosure rescue service providers until homeowners receive a written offer “that they decide is acceptable” from their lender or servicer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has made a move that has prevented what otherwise might have been a shutdown of the securitized market in late January, according to the American Securitization Forum.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development cut corners when it attempted to upgrade a number of internal computer systems.

The federal interagency foreclosure task force that has been examining the largest mortgage servicers has been given a broader mandate by the new Financial Stability Oversight Council that held its second meeting on Tuesday.

The Oregon attorney general has filed a lawsuit accusing American Team Mortgage, Mission Viejo, for repeatedly violating the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act and Mortgage Rescue Fraud Protection Act.

In a further exodus of the Obama administration's economic team, Diana Farrell, the White House National Economic Committee's deputy director and Michael Barr, the Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions, said Tuesday they are resigning their posts.

The National Credit Union Administration is exploring legal remedies against firms that sold faulty mortgage backed securities that later played a key role in the failure of a handful of corporate CUs.

A voluntary merger among some of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks may become a possibility now that the GSE regulator is trying to lay out a formal merger approval process.

Despite tough talk from regulators that they are cracking down on mortgage servicers that do not follow modification guidelines, the agencies have so far done little to punish firms.

Countrywide, the mortgage giant that's now part of Bank of America, routinely didn't bother to transfer essential documents for loans sold to investors, an employee testified.