Compliance & Regulation

With its nonbank supervision program finally underway, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to bring debt collectors and consumer reporting firms under its oversight umbrella.

Capital One Financial Corp. agreed as part of its purchase of ING Direct USA to originate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration to borrowers with low credit scores. But five months after giving verbal assurances to the Federal Reserve and consumer groups that it would accept FHA applications with minimum FICO scores of 580, Capital One still is not originating such loans.

A new Standard & Poor's report suggests a "proactive policy orientation" that "would focus on the financial system's overarching purposes" would be helpful in meeting regulatory aims when it comes to mortgages, among other things.

A new report that found systemic flaws in California's foreclosure process could be fodder for securities investors to make claims against banks and mortgage servicers, its author says.

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.