Compliance & Regulation

With a nod to Bob Dylan's prophetic lyrics, it seems the times are changing for the mortgage industry. Significant changes now taking place in the way mortgage loans are originated have created new challenges. Creative loan products have become a part of the past.

The trustee of the Meridian Investors Trust has filed a lawsuit on behalf of investors of the failed Meridian Mortgage funds to recoup over $150 million relating to a Ponzi scheme using their money.

Just imagine what a 10 basis point guarantee fee hike would do to the market for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. Well, apparently, the mortgage insurance industry has done quite a bit of imagining and has managed to get language added to the payroll tax bill that seeks parity between g-fee hikes for Fannie/Freddie, and GNMA.

Despite a concerted effort from the Defense Department to help members of the military achieve greater financial stability, there is still an enormous financial education gap.

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.