Compliance & Regulation

A new study sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association says the Dodd-Frank bill could stifle mortgage innovation, and lead to a permanent landscape dominated by 30-year fixed-rate loans.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling are encouraging consumers and small business owners across the country to fight identity theft by taking part in the Third Annual Protect Your Identity Week, Oct. 17-23.

Starting January 1, FDIC-insured institutions will have to retain 5% of the credit risk on newly issued securitizations until the federal banking agencies approve new risk retention standards next year as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.

Any mortgage fraud that is being reported today might not get dealt with until at least two years from now because federal agents are still dealing with cases from 2005 through 2008, a pair of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents told attendees at the Northeast Conference of Mortgage Brokers in Atlantic City, N.J.

The Federal Housing Administration had a market share of 3% five years ago. That’s swelled to 10 times that currently. Assuming neither of those figures is optimal, what is the right range of market share for FHA to take down in a more normal market?

It was no small irony that moments after voting to bar corporate credit unions from investing in risky collateralized debt obligations, the NCUA Board gave its approval to a plan to shed as much as $50 billion in toxic mortgage-backed securities held by the corporate system by repackaging them for sale to the public as CDOs.

On Sept. 17, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren was appointed to launch the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren also will have a broad portfolio of duties, advising President Obama on "policies and programs that are designed to protect the financial interests of middle-class families," the White House said.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown late Friday ordered the government-owned Ally Financial Inc. to stop foreclosing on homes in the state if it cannot prove immediately that it is complying with state law.

While the initial ramp-up for the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act is over or nearing its end for many, its continuing education requirements ensure that the need to train to keep up with it never stops.

What’s all the fuss about in appraising new condominium developments? What are Fannie Mae’s specific rules regarding condominium developments? Do appraisers need to be proactive when they are tasked with appraising a new condominium?