Compliance & Regulation

Fannie Mae's lobbying efforts in 2004 would be the subject of a special study under a newly introduced GSE reform bill to see whether Fannie executives "intended to obstruct" an Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight examination that uncovered a $10 billion accounting scandal at the government-sponsored enterprise.The GSE regulatory reform bill introduced by four Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee directs OFHEO's successor agency to conduct the study. "We are asking for a study to really review and see what happened there," a senior aide told MortgageWire. In 2004, Fannie Mae used its political clout on Capitol Hill to get the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate several "leaks" from OFHEO to the news media that were damaging to Fannie. The HUD IG report raised serious questions about OFHEO's conduct, and several lawmakers called for the replacement of top agency officials. OFHEO's final report on its examination noted that a Fannie Mae lobbyist asked a powerful senator to request the HUD IG investigation. OFHEO can be found at http://www.ofheo.gov.

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has entered into a $500,000 settlement with a Connecticut regulator for charging excessive financing fees on 473 borrowers and for failing to register 147 originators with the state banking department.Countrywide paid a $401,750 civil money penalty for the violations and contributed $100,000 to NeighborWorks to provide homeownership assistance for state residents. State examiners found that Countrywide imposed prepaid finance charges that exceeded (in the aggregate) the legal limit, which is 5% of the loan amount or $2,000, whichever is greater. The limit on prepaid finance charges, which includes points and application and administrative costs, was enacted four years ago as part of the state's anti-predatory-lending law. Countrywide has refunded all the 473 overcharged borrowers and has agreed to take corrective actions with respect to prepaid finance charges and registering originators that work directly for the company. Countrywide said the settlement arose from a "misinterpretation and misapplication" of certain Connecticut requirements and that the company undertakes extensive efforts to comply with national and state laws governing its lending operations. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee will get a chance to debate the merits of their respective Federal Housing Administration reform bills April 19 at a housing subcommittee hearing.The competing bills are aimed at re-energizing the FHA single-family program so it can serve more subprime borrowers by charging risk-based premiums. The Republicans' bill (H.R. 1752), introduced by Judy Biggert, R-Ill., would allow the FHA to charge a maximum upfront mortgage insurance premium of 3% and an annual premium of 2%. The Democrats' bill (H.R. 1852), introduced by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would cap the upfront premium at 2.25% and the annual premium at 55 basis points for borrowers who make a downpayment, even if their credit score is below 560. For those risky borrowers, the FHA can require homeownership counseling and take other consumer protection measures. Democrats contend that the Republicans are charging too much for borrowers who make a downpayment.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could add only affordable housing loans and securities to their mortgage investment portfolios under a regulatory reform bill introduced by four Republican GSE hardliners on the Senate Banking Committee."This bill would refocus the GSEs' practices and investments on affordable housing, thereby reducing systemic risk," Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., said. Any mortgages or mortgage-backed securities acquired by the government-sponsored enterprises after enactment of the bill would have to meet the affordable housing goals set by the new GSE regulator or be "promptly securitized and sold to third parties," the bill says. Both GSEs have $700 billion portfolios, and the regulator could make "temporary adjustments" to avoid market disruptions. Sens. Sununu, Chuck Hagel (Nebraska), Elizabeth Dole (North Carolina), and Mel Martinez (Florida) are the Republican co-sponsors of the bill. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., has not circulated a GSE bill yet.

In a March 27 item, the Government Underwriting System (GUS), formerly known as the USDA Guaranteed Underwriting System, was erroneously referred to as the Ginnie Mae Underwriting System.

Mitch Heffernan, the former president and chief executive of the defunct Mortgage Lenders Network, recently sought an injunction in bankruptcy court to stop the Connecticut Department of Labor from pursuing criminal charges against him, according to an article published in the Hartford Courant.The office of a Connecticut state's attorney blocked the injunction and defended the department's right to seek the warrant. The department applied for an arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan that would charge him with 61 counts of failing to pay wages to employees at MLN, which filed for bankruptcy in March. The arrest warrant for Mr. Heffernan is still pending at the state's attorney's office, said Nancy Stefans, a representative of the department. MLN was a top-20-ranked subprime lender.

Consumer advocates are urging Congress to amend the bankruptcy code so that homeowners can restructure high-cost loans and avoid foreclosure.The current code protects mortgage lenders, according to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and does not allow the bankruptcy judges to reduce the interest rate or principal amount so that homeowners can successfully emerge from bankruptcy with affordable payments. As a result, more homeowners with subprime loans are forced to walk away from the homes, according to NACBA president Henry Sommer. "Help is urgently needed for hundreds of thousands of American families at risk of losing their home due to abusive home loans," he said. An NACBA survey shows that bankruptcy attorneys are finding that more of their clients have problems involving subprime loans. Half of the respondents said 50% of their clients with homes have mortgage-related problems, while 20% of the attorneys said 75% of their clients with homes have mortgage-related problems. The Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Responsible Lending joined the NACBA in calling for bankruptcy reforms.

With the possibility of accelerating foreclosures this year and next, Congress might consider creating a rescue fund that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to purchase and cure defaulted mortgages, according to a congressional report."While this policy option would include upfront costs," lenders would likely sell those loans at a discount "given the prospect of mass delinquency and foreclosure," the Joint Economic Committee report says. The report notes that former FHA commissioner William Apgar authored the proposal to fund and revamp the FHA to oversee a rescue fund. John Robbins, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said such a proposal could have a "detrimental effect" on the FHA mortgage insurance fund. The MBA chairman also said the magnitude of the foreclosure problem is being overblown, but that industry is working on solutions to refinance delinquent borrowers. The quickest and most cost-effective way to provide help for troubled homeowners, the JEC report says, is to step up funding for community-based foreclosure prevention programs.

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America is planning to conduct protests and mock foreclosures at the homes of Wall Street and mortgage company executives -- demanding loan modifications for subprime borrowers who are facing foreclosure.Subprime adjustable-rate mortgages were "structured to fail," and "we are going to go into their neighborhoods" if they don't stop the foreclosures, NACA chief Bruce Marks said at a Washington news conference. The Boston-based community advocacy group wants the investment banking firms and subprime lenders to restructure the loans so that troubled borrowers get a fixed-rate mortgage at the initial qualifying rate (e.g., a 2/28 ARM with an initial interest rate of 6% would be restructured as a 6% fixed-rate mortgage). NACA plans to start the protest campaign on April 21 by inviting subprime borrowers to its offices in 33 cities to educate them about subprime "scams" that were used to exploit them with loans they could not afford, Mr. Marks said. The group is also pledging $1 billion to refinance victims of predatory lending into affordable mortgages through a commitment by Bank of America and Citigroup. NACA has run a mortgage lending operation for subprime homebuyers since the mid-1990s that offers no-downpayment fixed-rate mortgages at 1 percentage point below the market rate. Now it is refinancing mortgages to prevent foreclosures.

The top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee supports the concept of making secondary-market investors accountable for the performance of subprime loans through an assignee liability provision that is modeled after a New Jersey anti-predatory-lending law.Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said the New Jersey statute has been "shown to be effective, and it could be the starting point for national legislation." Nearly a month ago, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D- Mass., said he wants to include an assignee liability provision in predatory-lending legislation. "It is the best enforcement mechanism we could have," Rep. Frank said. Rep. Bachus clarified, in response to a news story, that he has not reached an agreement with Chairman Frank on an assignee liability provision. The ranking committee Republican also stressed that the New Jersey law allows borrowers a private right of action to press claims rather than a class-action lawsuit. He said he also supports the New Jersey law because investors in subprime securities can protect themselves from liability through due diligence.