Compliance & Regulation

WASHINGTON—A proponent of private transfer fees says a new disclosure will make these fees more transparent to homebuyers but critics aren’t buying it.Private transfer fees (usually 1% of the sales price) have to be paid by the seller every time a property sold over a 99-year period.

ILLINOIS BONDING REQUIREMENTS increase effective Dec. 31. The rate is $25,000 to $150,000 depending on the total loan officer volume. (I hope you have a lot of volume)Surety Bond Volume Requirements:

Refinancing fraud is on the rise.An updated CoreLogic 2010 Mortgage Fraud Trends Report finds that while overall mortgage fraud has increased by 20% compared to its lowest level in 2009, refinance fraud increased by 30%.

The wave of short sales expected to enter the market due to newly intensified government and industry efforts to avoid foreclosures is increasing the odds for short sale fraud risk.

As you think of the suspense-filled spy movies in which the hero must defuse a bomb to save the city, you can hear the familiar “tick, tick, tick” of the bomb’s time clock. With ninja-like precision the hero cuts the yellow wire, or maybe the red wire, just in time to stop the clock, neutralize the bomb, and save the day.

Put-backs of defective mortgages are accelerating and the Federal Reserve Board is growing more concerned about the potential risks to the banking system.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new rule banning the collection of fees by mortgage loan modification and other foreclosure rescue service providers until homeowners receive a written offer from their lender or servicer “that they decide is acceptable”.

BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been ordered by a jury to pay $2.41 per share to common stockholders in a class action lawsuit filed after the company's earnings were battered by problems with real estate.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking at warehouse lending to see if such transactions are legitimate secondary market transactions under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

George Madison, general counsel of the Treasury Department, says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may move forward with proposed rules without a permanent director.