Compliance & Regulation

If government support of the mortgage market is reduced – either gradually or immediately – and the private sector doesn't fill the void with investment capital, it could have dire consequences for housing and residential finance, according to a new analysis released by Redwood Trust.

At its Nov. 23 meeting next week, the Financial Stability Oversight Council is set to discuss the on-going foreclosure mess and whether it presents a systemic risk to the financial system, according to a Treasury Department official.

An updated CoreLogic Mortgage Fraud Trends Report finds that while overall mortgage fraud has increased by 20% since fraud hit its lowest level in 2009, refinance fraud saw an even higher increase of 30%.

All four federal bank regulatory agencies are conducting targeted exams of foreclosure practices and policies involving on-site examinations and the sampling of loan files at depositories that control a large portion of the nation's $9.9 trillion in housing receivables.

Federal banking regulators are examining two nonbank service providers at the epicenter of the foreclosure-documentation mess – Lender Processing Services Inc. and Merscorp Inc.’s Mortgage Electronic Registration System.

Texas was a latecomer to the reverse mortgage game, with the product’s presence in the state now celebrating its 10th anniversary of the first loan being originated.

The Dodd-Frank bill has "eroded" the benefits of the federal thrift charter and it's unclear if existing institutions will "prosper" under the supervision of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, according to the current thrift regulator.

The 50 state attorneys general investigating the robo-signing debacle are looking at issues regarding the accuracy of information used by servicers in the foreclosure process as well as the imposition of fees and force-placed insurance, according to Iowa AG Tom Miller.

The Treasury Department Tuesday afternoon named two key members to its Consumer Financial Protection Bureau transition team to work on creating a supervisory regime for nonbank lenders and depository institutions.

Among the mortgage market risks Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair Sheila Bair has her eye on are recent foreclosure concerns, interest rates, mortgage underwriting and government reallocation away from housing—the last being something she sees advantages to but also acknowledges some potential problems with.