Compliance & Regulation

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions stressed the importance of maintaining a viable secondary market for mortgages in a letter to the Treasury, responding to the latter's recent signals that it is preparing to take up the issue of government-sponsored enterprise reform again.

How much does Bank of America loathe the mortgage business? Let us count the ways: it kills its wholesale and correspondent units, trims its warehouse group down to nothing, allows its departing high-performance loan officers to leave and then starts lopping off huge chunks of its servicing portfolio.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a "Blueprint for an America Built to Last," calling for, among other things, action to help responsible borrowers and support a housing market recovery.

If it weren't for a recent legal settlement with Bank of America, FHA's mortgage insurance fund would be in the red.

The Federal Housing Administration will "soon" increase its annual premium on jumbo mortgages by 25 basis points, according to government budget documents released Monday morning.

The Obama White House, in its new budget, predicts that the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund will return to health by 2015 -- but warns that the agency's book of business is vulnerable to what it calls "Black Swans."

Servicers could end up paying millions more toward the $25 billion mortgage settlement under deal terms that require them to review thousands of foreclosures involving members of the military.

Carrington Capital Management, a unit of Carrington Holding Co., and American Home Mortgage Servicing (AHMSI) have agreed to bring to a close the action filed by Carrington against AHMSI in 2009.

The California Housing Finance Agency has revised a policy that resulted in it foreclosing on homeowners who were current on payments but had been renting out homes financed through the agency. The policy went into effect last week.

Barclays Capital analysts said in a report released last week that large region-specific note and REO auctions have become a regular feature in the past year.