Compliance & Regulation

An appellate court decision earlier this month would provide a new avenue for borrowers to file suit against mortgage servicers that deny permanent modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program.

A federal judge has indicated he plans to reject Goldman Sachs & Co.'s motion to dismiss NCUA's suit and continue the case challenging the Wall Street bank over $1.1 billion of faulty residential mortgage-backed securities it sold to U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU, the two biggest credit union failures ever.

The growth of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has aided many mortgage originators in their ability to communicate with their customers. But for the companies they work for, these tools could be a compliance nightmare.

On March 7, U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake sentenced Paige Kinney, aka Jamielee Miller, to 15 years in prison. Kinney had previously pleaded guilty to various charges related to a mortgage fraud scheme and to charges of bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and bank fraud in two separate indictments.

Last year's repeal of the final remaining vestige of Regulation Q, the prohibition of payment of interest on business demand deposits, at long last completed a pro-competitive process which began with the Monetary Control Act of 1980. The repeal was and is a good idea.

In case you haven't been paying close attention and reading the National Mortgage News website (and our paper weekly) the past year, there's a gargantuan shift underway in the mortgage industry. We correctly predicted that the servicing side of the business is 'deconsolidating.'

Collateral Intelligence has signed on with FICO to provide valuation and support for the credit risk provider’s analytic solution that predicts borrowers who are at risk of strategically defaulting on their mortgages.

Despite a $25 billion national mortgage servicing settlement being filed that provides assistance for homeowners to compensate for faulty foreclosure practices that occurred following the housing market crash, scammers were still prepared to capitalize on the vulnerability of desperate homeowners.

Despite the government's promise to crack down on violators of the new LO comp rules, nearly one year after they went into effect regulators have failed to deliver on their stern warnings and promises. Not surprisingly, some companies have elected to largely ignore the law, instituting compensation policies that are an obvious and blatant effort at circumventing the new compensation rules.

The Dodd-Frank legislation set new boundaries on the appraisal industry, especially in the areas of valuator independence and fees paid to those who perform work through appraisal management companies.