Compliance & Regulation

As servicing fraud schemes rise in which scammers are taking advantage of distressed borrowers, it is important for lenders to step up their efforts in detecting and preventing these false scams from taking place.

Sen. Chuck Grassley took the Justice Department to task Wednesday for its fair lending settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., saying it will have minimal economic impact for affected borrowers.

Several liberal House members pressed President Obama on Wednesday to fire the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco, if he continues to oppose writing down underwater mortgages.

In a recent ruling, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that mortgage servicers have the right to protect and maintain their collateral interest in defaulted and foreclosed properties prior to the property going to sale—validating the work field service companies perform.

The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network bureau this week released its latest quarterly figures, and a year-to-year increase in them suggests mortgage loan fraud-related suspicious activity is still on the rise. But they also offer some hope the numbers could recede if the high loan volumes from the peak of the housing boom are ever fully vetted.

Investors are lining up to get their hands on the thousands of government-held foreclosed homes, either to fix up the houses for resale or to hold the properties as rentals. But in a sort of if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them scenario, some builders are putting up brand-new houses as rentals.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expanding its on-site examination teams at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to monitor their servicing activities while taking a closer look at risks posed by counterparties.

So, which presidential candidate knows the most about mortgage banking? Newt Gingrich who gave invaluable advice to Freddie Mac, telling that GSE to avoid subprime acquisitions? (If only, Freddy had listened!)

One of the major challenges we as an industry are facing is survival. Like it or not, the mortgage industry is undergoing a change at least as cataclysmic to us as global warming is to the penguins of Antarctica.

In a tax dispute that could be far-reaching, the U.S. Department of Justice told the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest appellate court, it believes that federally chartered credit unions should be exempt from the state's Mortgage Recording Tax because of the provisions of the Federal CU Act which exempt federal credit unions from almost all state taxes.