Compliance & Regulation

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is pressuring the Federal Housing Finance Agency to take additional steps to make the newly implemented HARP 2.0 program more accessible for homeowners with GSE loans.

President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray on Wednesday will clear the way for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to use its full enforcement and regulatory powers to police all mortgage lenders and servicers.

The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based mortgage advisory firm, has acquired GWN Consulting LLC, a specialist in FHA and GNMA risk management and quality control services.

The White House Wednesday morning signaled its intention to make former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through a recess appointment.

Although profit margins are still healthy for most mortgage banking firms, net income in the new year will continue to be impacted by "high" rep and warranty expenses, according to a recent report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

What a surprise! A study by the Federal Reserve Board of New York found that speculative investors in real estate played a large part in the quick run-up and subsequent devaluation of housing prices, and are responsible for more of the financial crisis than previously thought. Wow! Turns out lenders were the victims after all, right?

Not so long ago, I mused in a column for this publication about the dearth of qualified underwriters available at a time when the industry is in desperate need of them. It was Hemingway who first introduced me to the concept of the Lost Generation, a situation that seems to have entered our reality today.

Safety, soundness, and compensation: These are words most often associated with the evaluation of large depository institutions. However, increasingly auditors are looking towards such standards in interpreting and implementing the newest regulations pertaining to compensation, and various guidelines applicable to nearly all financial institutions have expressly incorporated such concepts in evaluating an organization’s viability and compliance. Moreover, as a matter of profit maximization and risk mitigation, considering the balance of risk and reward in establishing compensation–especially for management–should assume top priority to an institution’s decision-makers.

Among pending mortgage industry regulatory deadlines some players could be in neglecting in 2012 are requirements for third-party MERS audits.

Mike Anderson last week resigned as vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.