Compliance & Regulation

Flagstar Bank has closed on the sale of a $474 million portfolio of non-insured non-performing residential first mortgages.

Considered to be a deal broker and careful listener by those who have worked with him in the past, Joseph Smith is winning near-universal acclaim as President Obama's pick to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

House and Senate appropriators allotted $150 million for the Federal Housing Administration reverse mortgage program but now it appears those credit subsidy funds won’t be needed because of the new HECM Saver program.

When the 112th Congress convenes in January banking issues—broadly defined—will remain front-burner issues.As the new Congress organizes you can be sure of one thing: The Senate Banking Committee will look very different then than it does today, with at least five (and possibly more) members of the 23-member committee not returning for the new Congress.

Federal regulators need to create a definition for "qualified residential mortgage" that is safe for homebuyers, but not so safe that it funnels most of the business into the Federal Housing Administration insurance program.

Three U.S. senators are urging federal regulators to consider industry analysis of the default risks on certain loan products and features in drafting a rule that will exempt "qualified residential mortgages" from risk retention rules.

Mortgage underwriting standards have become "excessively tight" and the Federal Housing Administration and GSEs need to "reassess and amend their policies," according to the National Association of Realtors

Industry groups want the Federal Reserve and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make the merger of the TILA and RESPA mortgage disclosures a "first priority" and halt other related rule changes.

The President's bi-partisan commission on deficit reduction wants to cap the mortgage interest deduction at $500,000 — a 50% reduction from current tax rules, according to a proposal released late Wednesday afternoon.

Federal regulators should allow three-year ARMs and certain interest-only loans to be classified as "qualified mortgages" that will be exempt from risk retention rules, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.