Compliance & Regulation

The next step needed to improve the integrity of values in appraisal management is a set of scores for not only the valuations themselves, but also appraisers and specific areas.

Visit the office of John O'Brien, register of deeds in South Essex County, Massachusetts, and he'll eagerly show you stacks and stacks of documents. He calls it a crime scene.

The question most people seem to be asking is whether the flat origination fee proposal is going to become law. While I do not have a crystal ball, here is my take on it: The CFPB's policy positions it will certainly err in favor of certain consumer groups over the industry, but won't do so when there is little to gain.

Fitch CMBS stress tests show that relatively high percentages of top-rated securities that go through a sharp double-dip recession would keep those ratings intact.

Two Northern California real estate investors agreed to plead guilty for their roles in a conspiracy to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions.

For the past two years, Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., has touted its $499 home refinance program in New Jersey and Pennsylvania—but there is fine print.

If you’re wondering why the nonperforming loan auction market hasn’t been more robust – especially given the fact that banks and the GSEs are sitting on billions of dollars in defaulted home mortgages – you can blame accounting rules, or so we’re told.

A debtor in bankruptcy proposes a Chapter 13 plan to strip a second mortgage as unsecured and is found to be still in good faith, the CFPB proposes rules that could make life more difficult for lenders and originators, five states loom large in foreclosures, two foreclosure-related bills move forward in California, and various types of mortgage-related fraud allegations in different areas continue to move through the court system.

The question most people seem to be asking is whether the flat origination fee proposal is going to become law. While I do not have a crystal ball, here is my take on it: The CFPB will certainly err in favor of certain consumer groups over the industry, but won't do so when there is little to gain.

The Federal Reserve Board unanimously approved the release of a set of proposals that would raise banks' minimum capital requirement to 7%.