Compliance & Regulation

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.

A homebuilder has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Baltimore for conspiring to commit wire fraud arising from a construction investment scheme.

Recent mortgage industry rules such as those laid out as part of Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and good-faith estimate reform have pushed the need for improved compliance closer to point of sale, Martin Williams, CEO Acris Technology, told this publication.

Internet scams were the top consumer fraud complaint in 2011, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, but mortgages also earned a mention.

Two mortgage industry trade groups are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to focus its unique powers on streamlining regulations that would improve residential disclosures to consumers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will issue mortgage servicing rules this year that would impose new limits on force-placed insurance products and require additional disclosures for adjustable-rate mortgages, Director Richard Cordray said Tuesday.

As if appraisal management companies, readily available automated valuation models and broker priced opinion options were not enough challenges to the real estate appraisal profession, well-intended federal and state regulations are generating new controversy.