Compliance & Regulation

On Friday night the Office of Thrift Supervision closed Downey Savings and Loan of California, a top 40 ranked residential lender, and once a large player in the subprime and alt-A markets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of the thrift and immediately sold Downey and another ailing depository, PFF Bank & Trust of Pomona, to U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis, which operates the nation's 11th largest mortgage banking company. The bank promised to implement a loan modification program for ailing residential borrowers at the two thrifts. According to a statement put out by FDIC, USB will purchase "virtually" all of their assets under a loss sharing agreement with the government. Downey had $12.8 billion in assets, PFF $3.7 billion. USB will assume the first $1.6 billion in losses on select asset pools at Downey and PFF.

The government's just-announced rescue of Citigroup will protect the financial services giant from large losses on a $306 billion pool of residential and commercial mortgage securities and will lead to an expansion of the bank's loss mitigation efforts to help troubled homeowners. Citigroup announced an ambitious loss mitigation program on Nov. 11 and said it has adopted a streamlined loan modification model similar to one developed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. But the rescue package, developed by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and FDIC, says the government will provide Citigroup with a "template to manage guaranteed assets. This template will include the use of mortgage modification procedures adopted by the FDIC, unless otherwise agreed." FDIC chairman Sheila Bair generally considers the FDIC model to be superior to the models adopted by the banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Citigroup has agreed to absorb the first $29 billion in losses on the $306 billion pool and the government will absorb 90% of future losses for 10 years on residential assets and five years on commercial real estate assets. In providing this guarantee, regulators reduced the capital risk weighting on the $306 billion, which freed up $16 billion in existing capital for Citi. Treasury also provided Citigroup with a new $20 billion capital infusion - on top of the $25 billion it received earlier on the TARP program.

Freddie Mac said in a public filing Friday it received notice that it may lose its listing on the New York Stock Exchange because its share price has been under $1 for more than 30 days. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the mortgage investing giant -- now a ward of the government -- said it received the notice on Monday. The NYSE requires that the average closing price of a stock remain above $1 per share. The company continues to buy mortgages from its seller/servicers. Its regulator seized control of the GSE in September. The company is, more or less, owned by the government, though its shares still trade on the NYSE. It recently hit a low of 25 cents.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is offering to share its playbook on streamlined loan modifications with all residential servicers. The process was developed at IndyMac FSB, now a ward of the government. FDIC said it will share its "Mod in a Box" guide to provide servicers with the "necessary tools to facilitate streamlined and systematic loan modifications." According to FDIC chairman Sheila Bair, the IndyMac approach is effective in dealing with mortgages in portfolios and securitized pools. "I would encourage all industry participants to adopt the FDIC loan modification program as the standard approach in dealing with the grave problems facing us with continued mounting foreclosures," she said. FDIC inherited 60,000 delinquent mortgages when IndyMac was placed into conservatorship in July. Under the program FDIC mailed 23,000 loan modification proposals to borrowers and completed more than 5,300 transactions after verifying the borrowers' income. On average, the modifications cut a borrower's monthly payment by $380 or 23%.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending all foreclosures and evictions of homeowners during the holiday season -- November 26 to January 9 -- while their servicers get up to speed on a new streamlined loan modification program favored by the Treasury Department. The temporary suspension is expected to give troubled borrowers already 90 days past-due a chance to benefit from the new streamlined approach that servicers are trying to implement by December 15. "Until the streamlined modification program is fully implemented, we felt it was in the best interest of both borrowers and Fannie Mae to take this extra step," said Fannie chief executive Herb Allison. Freddie has instructed its servicers and foreclosure attorneys to contact 6,000 borrowers with pending foreclosure sales. If the single-family property is occupied the foreclosure sale will be halted. Fannie estimates the suspension will benefit 10,000 homeowners. Under the streamlined approach, the government sponsored enterprises can reduce the interest rate to 3%, extend the loan up to 40 years and even defer payments on part of the principal if necessary. The objective is to reduce borrowers' payments to 38% of gross income through a fast and simple process. "With this suspension, seriously delinquent borrowers may have an opportunity to avoid foreclosure and workout terms to stay in their homes," GSE regulator James Lockhart said.

Federally regulated thrifts -- excluding the failed Washington Mutual and IndyMac -- originated $66 billion in one- to four-family loans in the third quarter, a 49% decline from the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Office of Thrift Supervision. Meanwhile, the nation's remaining 800 or so thrifts set aside $7.9 billion for loan loss reserves in the quarter, reporting a $4 billion loss. In the second quarter the industry lost $1.7 billion. The failures of IndyMac and WaMu reduced thrift industry assets by more than 20%, but did not improve earnings or loan performance trends of the surviving 818 thrifts, OTS officials said. WaMu was purchased by JPMorgan Chase, a bank. IndyMac is in the process of being auctioned off by the government. Non current construction and land loans (90 days or more past) jumped from 6.5% in the second quarter to 7.8% in the third quarter, while charge-offs nearly doubled to 1.23%. Thrifts charged off $546.3 billion in construction loans in the third quarter. Meanwhile, non-current single-family loans rose 11 basis point to 3.39% in the third quarter and charge offs fell 10 bp to 0.24%. But OTS officials warned that one quarter is not a trend. Thrifts charged off $2.8 billion in 1-4 family loans in the third quarter. In the second quarter, OTS-regulated thrifts, including WaMu and IndyMac, originated $107 billion in single-family loans and reported a $5 billion loss after setting aside $14 billion in loan loss reserves.

House Financial Services Committee chairman Frank Barney, D-Mass., is urging the Treasury Department to reduce the cost of mortgage insurance premiums on the FHA's "Hope for Homeowners" program by using money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. In a new letter to Treasury, Rep. Frank urges the secretary Henry Paulson to use the TARP funds to reduce the "high level" of upfront and annual fees on H4H loans. The Federal Housing Administration is required to charge a 3% upfront and a 1.50% annual premium. "These high fees are depressing program usage, and using TARP funds to pay them down could significantly increase the number of foreclosures averted," Rep. Frank says in the November 20 letter. (On a regular FHA loan, the upfront premium is 1.75%. The annual premium is 55 basis points.) The committee chairman also wants Treasury to begin purchasing whole loans on a "large scale" for the specific purpose of modifying the loans and keeping the borrowers in their homes."

Federally regulated thrifts -- excluding the failed Washington Mutual and IndyMac -- originated $66 billion in one- to four-family loans in the third quarter, a 49% decline from the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Office of Thrift Supervision. Meanwhile, the nation's remaining 800 or so thrifts set aside $7.9 billion for loan loss reserves in the quarter, reporting a $4 billion loss. In the second quarter the industry lost $1.7 billion. The failures of IndyMac and WaMu reduced thrift industry assets by more than 20%, but did not improve earnings or loan performance trends of the surviving 818 thrifts, OTS officials said. WaMu was purchased by JPMorgan Chase, a bank. IndyMac is in the process of being auctioned off by the government. Non current construction and land loans (90 days or more past) jumped from 6.5% in the second quarter to 7.8% in the third quarter, while charge-offs nearly doubled to 1.23%. Thrifts charged off $546.3 billion in construction loans in the third quarter. Meanwhile, non-current single-family loans rose 11 basis point to 3.39% in the third quarter and charge offs fell 10 bp to 0.24%. But OTS officials warned that one quarter is not a trend. Thrifts charged off $2.8 billion in 1-4 family loans in the third quarter. In the second quarter, OTS-regulated thrifts, including WaMu and IndyMac, originated $107 billion in single family loans and reported a $5 billion loss after setting aside $14 billion in loan loss reserves.

Jose Serrano of Stockton, Calif., has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $219,000 in restitution to Washington Mutual Bank for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme involving the purchase of numerous residential properties in the Stockton area between 2003 and 2005. According to Matthew Stegman, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California and prosecutor of the case, the investigation has also resulted in charges against other defendants, including Iftikhar Ahmad, Manpreet Singh, John Ngo, William Bridge and Paul Bridge. Each of these defendants has entered guilty pleas to various charges and awaits sentencing. Another defendant, Joel Blanford, has been charged and awaits trial.

Revis Otto Willis, a former mortgage broker from Houston, has been sentenced to 121 months in federal prison without parole followed by three years of supervised release for his leadership role in a mortgage fraud scheme. According to Tim Johnson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Willis was a mortgage broker who owned and operated Advanced Mortgage Services in Houston. Between October 2004 and May 2008, Willis recruited straw buyers to make false statements about their income, employment and bank account balances on loan applications to purchase residential properties in the Houston area. He encouraged the buyers to apply for mortgages in amounts greater than the actual sales price of the home. The loan applications containing the false statements were submitted to various financial institutions that traded mortgages on the secondary market. The difference between the actual sales price and the exaggerated loan amount was divided among Willis and others involved in the scheme. Almost all the loans secured as part of the scheme were defaulted upon and resulted in foreclosures. Willis' scheme involved 21 different residences and resulted in $2 million in losses.