Compliance & Regulation

Lawmakers and industry groups are urging FHA to update condo rules to provide more homeownership opportunities for first-time buyers.

The CFPB’s expanded data requirements for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act will create a powerful tool for analyzing fair lending compliance. But some say the initiative is a massive overreach that could compromise borrower privacy.

An alternative compliance model merges mortgage and home equity oversight by focusing on common operations is an innovative way to compete with the traditional manner of handling those efforts separately.

The Consumer Financial Protection Database might be unfair to the financial services industry, but the information it holds for lenders and servicers can help them manage customer service and avoid costly litigation.

Mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial failed four servicing tests in the second half of 2014. Joseph A. Smith Jr., the monitor of the $25 billion national mortgage settlement, said the Atlanta servicer was “beginning to show progress” in complying with terms of the 2012 agreement.

The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned software vendors that they face new scrutiny from regulators for causing mortgage lenders to miss the TRID-compliance deadline. He was vague about how far the CFPB might go, but many in the industry are prone to fear the worst.

From thrift deregulation to government domination, the mortgage business is prone to dramatic shifts. Here are 10 people who share the credit, or the blame, for major industry changes.

NCUA said it has entered into an agreement under which investment bank Barclay's Capital will pay $325 million to resolve claims arising from losses related to the purchase of faulty residential mortgage-backed securities by corporate credit unions.

Private mortgage insurers are seeking a larger share of the credit risk on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-guaranteed loans.

Housing finance reform in Congress is stalled, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (often under pressure from their regulator) are forming partnerships, developing new products and finding ways to share risk with the private sector to correct flaws in the housing system.