Compliance & Regulation

Equifax Inc. has created a new Verification of Hazard Insurance service for mortgage and home equity lenders.

Customer relationship management technology and new regulations require lenders and loan officers to re-evaluate how they manage the ownership and use of lead sheets.

Interest rates for mortgages over $417,000 have fallen 11 basis points during the past six weeks, driven by competition among banks to win the mortgage business of wealthy, less risky borrowers and in turn, make them customers of other financial products.

The CFPB and other regulators are showing an increasing appetite for big data. The HMDA database may be the biggest in the mortgage business and a preview of the upcoming dataset may give lenders a chance to stay one step ahead of the feds.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requests data that if used too zealously could cause a massive restriction in the market and a reduction in the type and amount of lenders.

Acquiring the technology vendor would help Altisource build a marketplace for ancillary mortgage services and reduce the company's reliance on its former parent and top client, Ocwen.

New and experienced compliance experts have to learn the nuances of all the new regulations.

Mortgage executives are optimistic about the direction of the housing industry, but still think it is difficult for consumers to obtain real estate financing.

Although the proposal to add more Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements was required by the Dodd-Frank Act, those in the lending industry said they were taken aback by the amount of additional information the CFPB is seeking, arguing it goes way beyond the regulatory reform law.

Jessie Litvak's March conviction was the first tied to the Public-Private Investment Program, an initiative that used TARP funds to spur investments in mortgage-backed securities after the 2008 financial crisis.