Compliance & Regulation

The largest U.S. banks -- which also control a large chunk of the U.S. mortgage market -- are bracing for the release of stress test results this week by the Federal Reserve Board. And the stakes have seldom been higher.

Several lenders have recently been investigated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other regulatory bodies concerning their use of Marketing Services Agreements and similar types of agreements.

It would appear that certain politicians - both left and right - look at guarantee fees and say to themselves: Hey, here's a way to raise some revenue and no one will blame us for taxing mortgage lenders. Well, guess again.

A federal appellate court has ruled that a Chicago homeowner can continue suing Wells Fargo for breach of contract and promissory fraud challenging the Home Affordable Modification Program.

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.