Compliance & Regulation

The CFPB recently released its 800-plus-page enforcement manual, in which it lays out its expectations for mortgage banks and brokers. A review of the enforcement manual shows that the mortgage business is about to change forever.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus is facing the toughest political challenge of his 19-year career in Congress, and it's not even coming from another candidate.

Three California attorneys this week were indicted for conducting an illegal loan modification scam where troubled borrowers paid thousands of dollars in upfront fees but no meaningful services were provided. Eventually, the mortgagors lost their properties to foreclosure.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Friday declared that the new CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — whoever that person might be — will earn no more than $500,000 per year, a major reduction in pay from the current job holders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seems to be farther along in its thinking about merging RESPA and TILA regulations than many suspected. Since last summer, the new bureau has mainly focused on devising the most informative and consumer-friendly good-faith estimate disclosures through numerous rounds of consumer testing and public input. Industry groups were impressed by this effort.

Keeping up with the relatively recent estimate tolerance requirements from the last wave of GFE reform can still be a challenge, and with the next round expected to make those requirements even tighter, companies are likely to redouble their efforts to make sure they have an efficient and accurate means of producing documented data to back those estimates.

The common themes of control, consistency and transparency targeted by the various new regulations are creating an increased need for more loan channel-agnostic mortgage operations and systems, according to one expert.

It may be a buyer's market for residential servicing rights but that isn't stopping mortgage banking firms from unloading their legacy housing receivables in an attempt to clean up their balance sheets.

More banks can be expected to finally begin dumping their non-performing loans this year, affording investors their first real chance at acquiring commercial real estate assets at bargain prices, according to a new report.

It may be the best of times to be a commercial, multifamily banker and the worst of times to be a servicer of securitized multifamily loans.