Compliance & Regulation

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is relying on an emphasis on standardized data to manage complaints it receives about mortgage industry participants and other rule making and regulatory activities.

Although the Government Accountability Office gave the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. its stamp of approval for 2010 and 2011 financial statements, the watchdog yet again said that the FDIC had overestimated the cost of certain of loss-sharing deals.

At the first public meeting Monday of the reconstituted Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, agency officials eased projections for future bank failures.

The government's authority to issue new flood insurance policies expires at the end of May and the Federal Emergency Management Administration is urging Congress to pass a two-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Only time can tell which of the new loan solutions to the housing crisis will eventually succeed, but the search is still on. And at least one option introduced by Carpe Aquam Capital LLC of Marlton, N.J., has already earned the attention of policy makers and bankers alike.

The mortgage industry will be saddled with high legal costs if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides a low bar for attorneys to challenge a lender’s adherence to the bureau’s “ability to repay” underwriting standards, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, which represents some of the nation’s largest banks.

The Agoura Hills, Calif.-based risk mitigation firm has integrated Google Maps satellite images into FraudGuard to help lenders decrease loan processing time and quickly identify external issues with properties.

Getting REO to market quickly can help optimize its selling value, but rushing the presale valuation process too much could prove counterproductive, according Carl Streck, principal at MountainSeed Appraisal Management.

While it is evident that loans are receiving a great deal of scrutiny these days, it is also true that appraisal reports are generally viewed most closely for the value they recommend, not the detail they contain.

Starting in January 2008 through August 2011, Menden admitted that he and a business partner, George Hranowskyj, conspired with Bank of Commonwealth insiders to purchase underperforming bank-owned properties in exchange for preferential lending treatment.