Compliance & Regulation

On Aug. 9, 2010 in San Francisco, Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay $20 million to settle a nationwide lawsuit brought by mortgage consultants who alleged they were misclassified as exempt by the bank so they would not have to be paid overtime.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a final rule regarding consumer notification when a homeowner's mortgage is sold or transferred.

In a surprise move, the Federal Reserve Board has issued a final rule that imposes restrictions on loan officer and mortgage broker compensation that is very similar to compensation language in the recently passed Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

John Walsh, the former chief of staff to the Comptroller of the Currency, is now the acting Comptroller of the agency that supervises national banks.

Tustin, Calif.-based Veri-tax LLC, which provides tax verification and fraud management solutions, has been acquired by private investment firm Blue Horizon Capital for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will provide additional capital and resources to support Veri-tax's growth initiatives.

WASHINGTON—In the wake of President Obama signing the massive regulatory reform bill, the Federal Reserve Board at press time last month was in a tentative position regarding pending rules on loan broker compensation—and giving no hints about which way it will go.

For lenders who are concerned about "subpar" appraisal quality, it's important to have a technology platform in place to manage multiple AMCs and compare the work of different outsource vendors in order to determine which ones are the best to use.

Now that the industry has moved to a full-doc environment, application misrepresentation is happening on the back end of the business where "it's like doing new origination" and there is the most room for potential fraud in documentation.

Ginnie Mae is raising its net worth requirement for mortgage-backed securities issuers, requiring them to meet bank-like capital standards.

Critics of the government's HAMP program are blaming the Treasury for failing to take into account the massive debt of defaulted mortgage borrowers.