Compliance & Regulation

Lenders are getting smarter about uncovering fraud before putting bad loans on their books, according to the latest figures from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking input for a study that could pave the way for new limits on consumer arbitration clauses.

The FBI mortgage fraud caseload is on track to pass last year’s volume and possibly even the record total reached in fiscal 2010.

Treasury’s policy director Laurie Anne Maggiano is concerned about misperceptions related to how the attorneys general servicing settlement money will affect borrowers and the marketplace over time.

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.