Compliance & Regulation

By now, thousands of readers have viewed our coverage (both in print and online) of eWarehouseOne, the mysterious warehouse lender that appears to have collected at least $250,000 in application and good faith checks, and doesn’t have a whole lot of lines of credit to show for it. After two months of investigating the company and talking to roughly 20 sources, we’ve come to the conclusion that the man running the show is Tom Reynolds, once listed as EVP in charge of warehouse lending. The problem is this: none of the account executives hired by the company (some of whom have left) have ever met Reynolds, though they’ve spoken to him on the phone.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency lifted an eight-year-old cease-and-desist order against the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, which pioneered the Mortgage Partnership Program back in the 1990s.

Housing industry groups are pressing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to craft a qualified mortgage rule that shields lenders from meritless litigation and ensures access to affordable and sustainable mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has indefinitely delayed its timeline for a highly anticipated decision on whether to allow principal reductions on loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Obama administration, which has proposed levying a tax on the largest banks as a way to pay for a broad mortgage refinancing plan, is now in talks with members of Congress about finding an alternative source of funding.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is shutting the door on states issuing transitional licenses to bank loan officers who seek work at an independent nonbank lender or brokerage shop.

The Obama administration, which has proposed levying a tax on the largest banks as a way to pay for a broad mortgage refinancing plan, is now in talks with members of Congress about finding an alternative source of funding, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Thursday.

Last week, the CFPB issued a compliance bulletin confirming that it would follow the disparate impact theory in advancing claims of discriminatory lending practices. The importance of the disparate impact theory is that it does not require a showing of intentional discrimination. Rather, it simply requires the government to show that a lender’s policies and/or practices resulted in a discriminatory outcome-regardless of the intent.

After the conclusion of a successful pilot program, the Internal Revenue Service is planning to roll out the production version of its electronic signature capabilities for Form 4506-T by the end of 2012, according to officials who detailed the plans during the MBA tech show in Phoenix this week.

Changes made late last year to the Obama administration's flagship mortgage refinance program have boosted profits at the nation's largest banks at the expense of homeowners and U.S. taxpayers, according to mortgage experts testifying at a Senate hearing on Wednesday