Compliance & Regulation

Raising guarantee fees on government-backed loans again would make a "bad situation worse," according to three industry groups that are lobbying elected officials to find new ways of funding a 10-month extension of the payroll tax holiday.

Compliance and documentation go together like education and success. And, the latter is even more determined today by finding the missing pieces in the transaction chain.

Companies have increasingly become reliant on bonuses to provide a portion of compensation to employees. Unfortunately, the use (or misuse) of a "bonus" often creates problems for employers.

Data provider CoreLogic has released an enhanced version of its RiskModel, which is a commercial analytics application utilized by the major banks and regulators to project future RMBS prepayments, defaults, losses and cash flows.

Amid lingering questions about the fate of a broad mortgage servicing settlement, many see the creation of a joint task force to probe mortgage abuses as hope that those negotiating the settlement can work out their differences.

RiskFinder Distress enables users to track and analyze key distress events throughout the life cycle of a loan. This computer product provides investors and lenders the information needed to evaluate risk, determine the impact of distress sales on loss severity estimates, drive loss mitigation strategies and identify markets that are starting to recover.

A new national refinancing program unveiled by President Obama earlier in the week will rely on the Federal Housing Administration to refinance private and GSE mortgages, according to a report from Federal Financial Analytics in Washington.

HUD and Detroit mayor Dave Bing have released a transition plan to return the city's housing commission to local control, a potential sign of improvement in one of the most distressed local U.S. markets.

Citigroup Inc. will no longer purchase "medium or high-risk" loans that could result in buyback requests from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, in the bank's latest effort to improve the quality of mortgages it buys from correspondent lenders, according to an internal memo obtained by American Banker.

The value at risk metric employed by every major banking institution offered the appearance of safety until taxpayer bailouts were the only option to save the financial system. Today, regulators are examining historical factors to determine what defines a "safe" mortgage in order to calculate capital adequacy and risk retention requirements.