Compliance & Regulation

Well, well, well (or maybe it should be Wells, Wells, Wells), it’s been quite a week for the little guy. Citigroup started it all off when National Mortgage News published a story about its ‘exclusionary list’ for correspondents. Then Wells Fargo came along and tossed its broker network into the ocean. Oh, and then Wells finished the week off by confirming that it’s killing most of its Realtor joint ventures (mortgage companies). We understand that the survivors include one in Virginia and at least one in Hawaii.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released its proposed rule on integrated mortgage disclosures, providing some direction about where the agency is headed . That is the good news. The not-so-good news is that the proposed rule presents potential compliance challenges.

Wells Fargo & Co. has completed a review of its Realtor mortgage joint ventures and plans to slash the number of these operations down to roughly 14 by early 2013.

Merscorp Holdings will provide the state of Delaware’s Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit a semi-annual report detailing results of its internal audits.

San Bernardino County and the cities of Ontario and Fontana have formed a Joint Powers Authority to consider a plan from private company Mortgage Resolution Partners to use the state's authority to seize current but underwater home loans.

The $175 million fair-lending settlement that federal authorities announced late this week with mortgage giant Wells Fargo offered both sides the chance to claim some measure of victory and move past a three-year-long investigation.

Twelve Democratic senators have called for a U.S. investigation into any role banks and regulators may have played in the scandal over the London Interbank Offered Rate.

As California goes, so goes the nation? Let’s hope not, at least as to legislation that will make California the first state in the nation to codify provisions of the national mortgage settlement.

A settlement will provide $125 million in compensation to nearly 34,000 borrowers harmed by Wells Fargo’s lending practices and another $50 million will be allotted to eight cities to fund community improvements in neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosures.

A federal judge sentenced Scott Eric Perry to 18 months in prison on false statement charges related to an almost $750,000 mortgage fraud scheme in the Birmingham area.