Compliance & Regulation

The Fed's recent report on current conditions and policy considerations in the housing market points to barriers to recovery that have been persisting beyond its sphere of influence despite its stimulus efforts.

Just when Redwood Trust was starting to look a bit like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market, we began to hear reports this week that two top 10 ranked banks are working on jumbo deals - for later in the year.

State attorneys general will meet Monday to discuss a potential settlement with bank servicers over the robo-signing scandal, according to a spokesman for Iowa AG Tom Miller.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has finalized a rule to clarify and strengthen its authority to seek indemnification from its largest lenders for making bad loans.

Even the most well-intentioned lenders sometimes fall short in terms of compliance with certain aspects of the Final Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines, most notably when it comes to having policies and procedures in place to evaluate and monitor the ongoing performance of appraisers and having the required supporting documentation to show that the lender is evaluating and monitoring the appraisers.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton outlined his plan to help troubled mortgage borrowers before a standing-room-only crowd packed into an auditorium the size of a football field at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center during the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention & Expo this week.

Not only has the housing meltdown affected state and local governments, servicers and investors, but homeowner associations too. These associations rely upon property taxes to pay for such services as utilities, trash pickup, snow removal, landscaping, and road and building maintenance, but vacancies have mitigated the number of improvements made in these communities.

Sen. Sherrod Brown is urging government negotiators to force banks to pay for a potential mortgage servicing settlement out of their own pockets, rather than by writing down the value of mortgage-backed securities owned by investors.

Some AMCs are looking at the UAD as an opportunity to revisit quality control processes, updating them and streamlining them where possible. Those AMCs that are not taking advantage of this opportunity should be.

Yesterday news broke from HUD secretary Shaun Donovan that a robosigning deal was imminent. Today, we learn that maybe a deal isn't as close as Donovan portrayed. Then again, the 'State of the Union' address is next week and there is some talk that President Obama wants to mention the robo settlement using the speech as yet another opportunity to bash the mortgage banking industry.