Compliance & Regulation

Investors punished Nationstar Mortgage, sending shares down more than 10% Wednesday, down $3.15 a share to $27.96 a share, after the nonbank servicer announced a capital raise of roughly $500 million that will dilute existing shareholders.

The leader of the Senate Banking Committee said he'd rather leave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in U.S. conservatorship than pass a bill that includes explicit government support for the housing market.

There are a lot of consumer, investor and regulatory complaints about how the nonbank servicing firm does business, but Morgan Stanley researchers offer reasons why certain investors and borrowers could benefit from sticking with Ocwen.

If you thought the subprime mortgage-backed security was an artifact of the past, think again. Nomura Holdings and Angel Oak Capital have a deal that may help revive the part of the market that went bust during the crisis. Their success could encourage more banks to dip their toes back into riskier mortgages.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, announced a vote for Thursday of 11 bills aimed at lessening regulatory burden on banks by changing aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act and associated regulations.

Ocwen Financial Corp. agreed to sell servicing rights on a $25 billion portfolio of home loans and said it's out of compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing standards.

In the wake of confusion about the status of pre-approvals, an expert on compliance seeks to clarify, but exhorts the CFPB to do so, officially, "prior to the effective date of the new rule."

Changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's consumer complaint system could give lenders lots to gripe about if they don't prepare accordingly and be proactive, mortgage industry consulting firm STRATMOR Group said March 23.

A new loan program will allow borrowers to put down even less than the 3% down payment mortgage programs to be offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This move and others like it, while laudable, will no doubt ensure increasing default rates.

Citigroup's failure to pay 24,000 people owed money as part of a settlement with the government over foreclosure abuses has prompted Maxine Waters, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, to call for an investigation into whether banks missed other borrowers.