Compliance & Regulation

If the Federal Reserve Board stretched the bounds of its emergency authority with the actions it took in 2008, Congress has found a way to snap things back into place.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York may require seller/servicers of nonprime mortgages and CDO sponsors to repurchase certain loans out of mortgage trusts that are controlled by the agency.

A pair of cases alleging violations of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act anti-kickback provisions could impact relationships between title underwriters and agencies and how title policies are produced.

The Senate late Wednesday passed a bill that gives the Federal Housing Administration more flexibility to adjust its insurance premium structure, a move that will help rebuild its depleted capital reserves.

On July 29, 2010 Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard announced he filed a lawsuit against THE GUARDIAN GROUP LLC for engaging in allegedly deceptive mortgage loan reduction services that have cost more than 2,500 consumers millions of dollars.

After three long years the wait is over. The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. in Oak Brook, Ill., is discussing the settlement of the Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust Inc. lawsuit, which was filed in 2007 shortly after the merger of Inland Western Retail Real Estate Advisory Services Inc., related property managers and Inland Western.

Adding to the injunction filed in Clark County, Nev., last week, another lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles County on behalf of three local individuals who placed deposits towards condominiums at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Congress passed H.R. 4173 on July 15. Although it's formally known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, I like to think of it as "FrankenDodd" because this monster tops out at more than 2,300 pages and will require several hundred new rules to fully implement. It will be at least three years before everything is finalized, and it will take a decade or two to judge whether its purpose—to overhaul the financial services industry so as to prevent another economic collapse—was successful.

On Aug. 1, use of a revised reverse mortgage application became required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.HUD first announced the revised form, known as Fannie Mae Form 1009, in a mortgagee letter issued in March. In addition, the Federal Housing Administration will no longer allow originators to use the Uniform Residential Loan Application, also known as Fannie Mae Form 1003/Freddie Mac Form 65 for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages.

Efforts are being made to proactively protect homes in default and foreclosure by sharing valuable information regarding appraisal fraud in short sale transactions.