Compliance & Regulation

The Federal Housing Administration's efforts to shift the burden of supervising mortgage brokers to actual funders is creating a mini-boom in demand for brokers to bring in homebuyers and refinancing customers.

Senate Democratic leaders have rounded up three Republican votes and are close to securing passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill.

The Federal Housing Administration is giving states, cities and nonprofit housing groups participating in HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program first crack at bidding on its newly foreclosed properties before they are placed on the market.

A group of investors is suing Fortuno, Inc., a Lodi, Calif.-based buyer of foreclosed homes and its outside marketing executives, alleging they illegally "enticed" the group to invest in the purchase and re-sale of REOs in Ohio and Michigan with the promise of high returns upon flipping the properties.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has filed a $300-million negligence lawsuit against four former executives at IndyMac Bank FSB, accusing them of granting loans to homebuilders who were unlikely to repay the loans.

WASHINGTON-In passing a Federal Housing Administration reform bill, the House of Representatives approved an amendment that bans lenders from making FHA loans to borrowers who defaulted on their previous mortgage even though they had the capacity to make the payments.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it has issued 64 subpoenas to "various entities" as part of an inquiry into private-label securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an eye toward the government recouping losses on nonprime assets.

Though private equity has largely been left out of bank failures of late, one firm found its way in this past Friday.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. hopes to sell a mortgage-backed security collateralized by at least $500 million of performing residential whole loans by the end of this month through a private placement deal, investment banking sources told National Mortgage News.

In wake of the subprime meltdown and rising foreclosures, Congress passed legislation in late 2008 authorizing the FHA to refinance up to $300 billion of underwater mortgages to help at-risk borrowers stay in their homes. To date the program has resulted in the agency endorsing just 64 loans under the "Hope for Homeowners" moniker. To call this once-heralded effort a disappointment is being generous.