Compliance & Regulation

The bankruptcy trustee for Thornburg Mortgage this week agreed to settle for $6.5 million a lawsuit against the company's former executives and legal counsel to settle charges that they engaged in a conspiracy to secretly use the failed jumbo lender's employees and assets to launch a new company.

Word is that initial fair lending exams underway under the auspices of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, some passed on from their original regulator, are largely focused on pricing.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week shut the door on Farm Credit System lending institutions entering the Federal Housing Administration program, following stiff opposition from the American Bankers Association.

WASHINGTON - Federal officials and state attorneys general released new documents Tuesday about the $25 billion multi-state servicing settlement, but still have yet to release a final settlement term sheet.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau budget is expected to jump 32% in fiscal year 2013, to $448 million, under the White House budget proposal.

The Obama administration is urging Congress to extend a tax provision allowing troubled homeowners that complete a short sale -- or benefit from a principal reduction -- to avoid paying taxes on the discharged amount of their loan balance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking industry and public comments on a prototype billing statement that residential servicers send homeowners to collect monthly mortgage payments.

The National Credit Union Association said Monday that a federal credit union may set the maturity date for modified or refinanced mortgages beyond the regulatory 40-year maturity limit, as long as the terms of the original loan were no more than 40 years.

The Obama administration's proposed 2013 budget unveiled Monday predicted that the Deposit Insurance Fund will once again go insolvent, clashing with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s own projections.

For the moment, the job of ensuring that the nation's largest bank servicers comply with the terms of last week's mammoth mortgage settlement falls on just one man.