Compliance & Regulation

The New York Times ran an editorial on Sunday, Jan. 15 on mortgage fraud. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought newspapers were supposed to print the news. There is nothing new about this piece, which once again points out that some banks are to blame for the current crisis.

The new collaboration between the federal government and certain states to investigate pre-crisis mortgage fraud will have 55 dedicated attorneys, investigators, analysts and support staff, officials said Friday.

The National Credit Union Administration is proposing new rules for troubled debt restructurings that will cover how all federally insured credit unions account for delinquencies, charge-offs, and income related to troubled home mortgages.

Both criminal prosecution and civil sanctions will be used to go after those responsible for securitization abuses, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday as government officials involved in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group under President Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force formally met for the first time.

The long-running negotiations on a settlement between large mortgage servicers and the state attorneys general have been dragging on too long.

The Treasury Department late Friday unveiled a new plan to expand the Home Affordable Modification Program by increasing the incentive fees it pays investors -- including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- for agreeing to reduce the principal amount of a mortgage.

The lending industry's troubles with a controversial type of insurance coverage appear to be spreading to new areas. In recent weeks New York State's Department of Financial Services has issued subpoenas to more than 20 mortgage servicers, a dozen insurers and 20 affiliated insurance agencies, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

I watched the State of the Union speech Tuesday and came away thinking no real "mortgage" surprises tonight except for two: Obama not using the word "mortgage broker" once, and the formation of the DOJ fraud task force on securitizing loans. But what about the "The State of the Mortgage Union"?

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Administration is changing the way it monitors the loan performance of its largest lenders as part of a rule to clarify and codify its indemnification practices.

Investors considering nonperforming loan purchases are increasingly concerned about title chains and finding related concerns that need to be cleaned up, according to a new manager at one vendor in this business.