Compliance & Regulation

A higher number of conduit loans that back U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities are being liquidated, and at a lower average loss severity rate. But as special servicers try to manage vintage deals more losses are expected this year and the next.

Lenders and servicers must meet Fannie’s requirement to satisfy homeowners-association claims on certain distressed properties by July 1 in order to preserve their first-lien position.

Appraisal management is still not perfect but it continues to improve, and it has come a long way from where it was just a few years ago, according to Judy Wheatley, a senior vice president at Indecomm.

An executive at a real estate investment trust that invests in agency and nonagency MBS said proposed credit risk-sharing opportunities with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are among the type of investments his firm would like to buy into.

Any successor to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be structured as a cooperative which would prevent Wall Street firms or megabanks from controlling access to the secondary mortgage market.

Two weeks ago, when industry officials met with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to discuss the agency’s proposals to reengineer how loan officers and brokers can make a living, it was a nightmare – a nightmare in the sense that few in attendance thought the agency understood the issues at hand.

A FINRA panel is taking action against Brookstone Securities and three individuals connected to the company, alleging CMO fraud.

Assembly Bill 2610, sponsored by Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), and Senate Bill 1473, sponsored by Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), will require purchasers of foreclosed homes to give tenants at least 90 days before starting any eviction proceedings.

The job of determining whether the nation's five largest mortgage servicers are complying with the landmark 49-state settlement will be divided between several private-sector consulting firms.

City councils in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh have passed ordinances this year requiring banks that hold city government deposits to provide detailed accounts of their lending practices in low-income communities.