Compliance & Regulation

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.

A House Financial Services subcommittee has approved a bill that would establish a foundation for a new private-label securitization market for mortgages.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said it is now adamantly opposed to any radical change in servicing compensation and has launched a "call to action" campaign, urging its members to heavily lobby the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Comptroller of the Currency is advising banks to review their foreclosure policies and procedures, urging them to address the risks associated with taking possession of homes, acquiring the properties and becoming the actual owner.

Former FHA commissioner David Stevens, who now heads the Mortgage Bankers Association, says hiking GSE guarantee fees to fund an extension of the payroll tax cut is "bad policy," calling such a maneuver a "slippery slope."

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has again delayed implementation of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, an initiative to update and streamline the loan and appraisal data collected by the government-sponsored enterprises.

Federal Home Loan Bank of New York president Alfred DelliBovi is joining a private commission whose mandate is to review the proper role of the federal government in the housing sector.