Compliance & Regulation

A proposal to hike guarantee fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the second time in two months was floated Wednesday night during negotiations over a $150 billion bill that would extend the payroll tax deduction and unemployment benefits.

After a period of decline and stability, property valuation fraud risk increased approximately 8% in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. Property valuation fraud is perpetrated by manipulating a home’s value to create false equity, which is then extracted from loan proceeds by various means.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said Wednesday that the agency intends to provide more detail to Congress and the public on its spending plans going forward.

Mortgage industry compliance and risk management are expected to become "quite substantial in the next five years," according to one of the co-founders of Digital Risk, a company that plans to add 1,000 full-time professional positions in this area during 2012 alone.

The foreclosure-to-rent movement is an opportunity bound to keep servicers, investors and the Federal Housing Finance Administration busy in the near future. It also is a game changer in the nation’s housing culture because while following the path of homeownership preservation it also embraces renting.

CitiMortgage has agreed to pay the Federal Housing Administration $158 million for submitting bad loans to the mortgage insurance agency for endorsement.

The single-family housing market has yet to recover in Southern California but regional opportunities are sprouting up in multifamily, according to a new forecast from Wells Fargo chief economist John Silvia.

Regulators said Wednesday they are extending the deadline for borrowers to request an independent foreclosure review under the consent orders signed by 14 mortgage servicers last April.

Last summer when MetLife revealed that it would sell its "forward" mortgage business the company did something smart for its workers: it paid for its loan officers to take classes and obtain their state licenses.

Boxing reminds me a lot of today's lenders. Most lenders get into the ring every day, fighting until someone drops. The reason however is not to win a match, but to prevent a repurchase.