Loan Think

For banks looking to enter or expand their mortgage servicing rights business, there is a pressing question: Are the best years for MSRs behind us or do current market conditions offer a favorable risk/reward opportunity?

A recently enacted requirement from the Securities and Exchange Commission places liability for collateral assets within securitization trust funds squarely on the shoulders of a depositor's chief executive, prompting calls for more extensive due diligence procedures.

The courts would not be getting involved in defining the reach of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau if the architects of the agency had instituted a commission to oversee it.

As the war for talent heats up and lenders face tougher decisions in recruiting and hiring loan officers, the need to deploy certain tactics might seem appealing, but will ultimately create more problems than they are worth.

The recent proposal is less about fixing fundamental flaws in our mortgage finance system and more about finding a broadly acceptable path to resolving the current impasse in mortgage finance reform.

Borrowers of "forward" Federal Housing Administration mortgages are unfairly being expected to backstop the disparate mission and risks of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program.

Offering counseling to prospective homebuyers as part of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's duty to serve requirements could play a crucial role in helping lenders and nonprofits safely increase access to credit for underserved markets.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's pending rule hinging on excessive document collection, when the focus should be on prohibitive privacy laws.

Land title insurers using mobile devices for business often misunderstand how much sensitive personal information they're holding, posing a big data security — and regulatory — problem.

Hint: businesses should be focused on data strategy and security, from the individual up to the enterprise level.