Compliance & Regulation

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, told investors at the beginning of 2011 that potential repurchases of private-label mortgage securities are "not that material" for his bank - an assertion that increasingly appears to be in doubt.

New requirements for third-party MERS audits are one of among the many inordinate compliance demands that could be easily overlooked, but they will soon no longer be something that can be ignored, according to executives at Quality Mortgage Services.

When word leaks out that your company is for sale top producers – the smart ones at least – start weighing their options. Readers of this column and the National Mortgage News website have been kept abreast of all the LOs walking out the door at Bank of America.

Senator David Vitter, R-La., late this week introduced legislation that would pressure the Federal Housing Administration to recapitalize its single-family mortgage insurance fund in two years.

Nevada's attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto this week filed civil fraud charges against Lender Processing Services and two subsidiaries alleging the company engaged in a widespread fraud of forging foreclosure documents.

Perhaps, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers should license the Aretha Franklin song "Respect." As most industry professionals know, brokers have taken their fair share of blame for the mortgage/housing collapse while retail LOs at many shops have escaped scott free.

With Congress moving closer to raising the guarantee fee on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, a proposal to hike Ginnie Mae fees by an equal amount is being circulated on Capitol Hill, National Mortgage News has learned.

Alabama prosecutors opened a trial this week against a woman accused of helping her brother run a sophisticated fraud that helped obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages from First Educators Credit Union in Birmingham and other lenders to finance condominium rehabs at the Gulf Shores resorts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday sued Richard Syron, the former chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, and Daniel Mudd, ex-CEO of Fannie Mae, over disclosures they made about subprime assets the GSEs invested in.

An offhand, deleterious comment about mortgage brokers by President Obama has raised the ire of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers - and brought a strong rebuke from trade group president Donald Frommeyer.