Servicing

There is no room to unfairly criticize the determination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to properly fulfill its regulatory roll in mortgage servicing, writes the founder of the Maine Attorney Saving Homes program.

Following the announcement of a shift in her political ambitions, Attorney General Letitia James signaled to servicers that she’s watching compliance around pandemic-related mortgage relief closely.

More than half of respondents to a recent Arizent survey think one-stop shops will be the biggest disruptor in the next three years, followed by all-cash purchase programs and iBuyers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seems to have been turned loose by Chopra in a redux of the bad old days under former director Richard Cordray, when the agency inflicted punishment on the mortgage industry often without any basis in fact, writes Whalen.

However, the seven institutions in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency study service 13% fewer loans compared with the third quarter of last year.

While over 112,000 loans exited plans in the past week, there is only a modest opportunity for continued improvement in the near term, Black Knight said.

However the numbers for November were still up from a year ago, when bans and forbearance were still largely in place.

Rising home values also brought 70,000 properties out of underwater status during the three-month period, CoreLogic said.

Some mortgage companies handling servicing have incorrectly charged borrowers for nonpayment and taken almost a year to issue refunds, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found.

The findings in a new TransUnion study could lend momentum to recent efforts by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage the reporting and use of rental-payment information in lending.