Compliance & Regulation

The California Association of Realtors and the California District Attorneys Association have launched a campaign to warn homeowners about the alarming increase in scams targeting foreclosure victims.

Under the servicing settlement, state funds are supposed to be used “to avoid preventable foreclosures” and “ameliorate the effects of the foreclosure crisis.”

What is clear after reading the May 9 information release is that when it comes to the CFPB and the Federal Reserve, the left arm clearly does not know what the right arm is doing.

The owners of a Los Angeles-based real estate company were charged last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission with violating antifraud and securities registration provisions by defrauding investors through a business that had false track records.

Is the mortgage industry in the throes of what might turn out to be a lengthy and profitable recovery? Let’s look at the signs: Fannie Mae just posted a hefty profit, Freddie Mac has earned money on an operating basis for at least two quarters in a row, many lenders are enjoying strong profit margins and the HARP program appears to be humming along. Optimists might have reason to pop some champagne.

House Republicans are wading back into the debate over whether to allow principal reductions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.

The discussion in a number of panel sessions at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference in New York on May 6 through 9, was if, let alone when, private capital would return to the industry. In the exhibit hall, much of the vendor focus was on technology and compliance which would ease that transition. Nary a wholesaler or correspondent aggregator was exhibiting.

The National Mortgage Settlement between state attorneys general and the federal government on one side and major mortgage servicers on the other is likely to affect the way small servicers and subservicers do business.

Fannie Mae and Bank of America are involved in a major dispute over $7 billion of outstanding buyback requests with the GSE cutting back on the loans it purchases from the giant bank.

For the past year nonbank loan officers have complained they must meet state licensing requirements and pass LO tests while their bank counterparts merely need to register with the states.