Compliance & Regulation

You remember the HARP program, don’t you? Originally, the idea was to refinance current but high LTV Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac borrowers into new, lower-rate loans—provided they were current. Home values (and lack of equity) reeked havoc on the concept so Uncle Sam took the LTV girdle off.

Mortgage interest rates may be at historically low levels, but the housing industry is not helping the overall economic recovery in the U.S. With the secondary market all but dried up except for Freddie and Fannie, who together purchased over three-quarters of originations in 2011, getting a mortgage these days is near impossible—perfect borrowers need only apply.

Dodd Frank could be interpreted to prohibit payments to originators of upfront points and fees. Eliminating compensation on such loans would create a certain amount of havoc and disarray for lenders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the government’s Small Business Review Panel next week will hold a private forum on its new proposal to revise the way loan officers, brokers and lenders are compensated on loan transactions.

Loan officers and brokers are none too thrilled with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 37-page proposal on altering the way loan officers, brokers, and lenders are compensated on all mortgage transactions.

Accused of price gouging, kickbacks and borrower mistreatment, insurers QBE and Assurant sparred with the New York Financial Services Department in a Thursday hearing on force-placed insurance.

Let's assume that the recent downdraft in rates won't get any worse and then ask this very basic question: will those buying MSRs at today's rock bottom prices look like geniuses when the smoke finally clears?

The Consumer Financial Protection Board stated that it will continue to use the doctrine of disparate impact in its supervisory and enforcement activities.

New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services decried "perverse incentives" in the force-placed insurance market on Thursday and recommended banning insurers from the standard practice of making payments to referring banks.

Based on the comments appearing on our blogs and message boards, loan officers and mortgage brokers are overwhelmingly Republican. They don’t like too much regulation and given what’s transpired because of Dodd-Frank (regarding loan officer compensation) they’re fighting an uphill battle concerning how much money they can earn.