Compliance & Regulation

Is there a limit to the maximum number of properties a borrower can finance? What happens when a borrower is trying to refinance his primary residence and has seven mortgages in total on his home and other properties? Find out more here.

The Securities and Exchange Commission wants publicly traded depositories to provide "clear and transparent" disclosures on the impact mortgage buyback and foreclosure reviews will have on their bottom line in future quarters.

Be prepared for Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration to come out with their own loan quality initiatives, said the head of SigniaDocs at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Atlanta.

The Work Number, a service of Equifax, and a source for employment, income and deposit verifications, has launched two new automated products: AuditChek and AccountChek.

A handful of state attorneys general are taking a hard line with mortgage servicers by demanding loan modifications and principal reductions for those borrowers whose rights may have been violated by robo-signing.

The crimes that contributed to historic levels of default may be creeping back into the industry, according to the latest quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report from Interthinx.

Distressed loan investors in particular need to keep an eye on potential legal developments arising from recent foreclosure concerns because they could affect their rights one way or another.

In order to prevent fraudsters from flipping properties quickly at high appreciations, lenders will be focused in the coming months and year on putting a stop to “flipping” by putting processes in place to eliminate short-sale fraud.

My background with HMDA is long, beginning in 1988 when the Pulitzer Prize-winning series “The Color of Money” was published in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The articles, using the then-available HMDA data, documented that banks and savings and loan institutions made far fewer residential mortgage loans in black residential areas than in white residential areas, and raised the issue of possible unlawful discrimination in mortgage lending to the national spotlight.

The Government National Mortgage Association has finalized plans to increase the minimum net worth requirement on its MBS issuers to $2.5 million, from $1 million.