Compliance

Hope LoanPort has started new collaborative partnerships with several national organizations to collectively provide foreclosure-related fraud prevention assistance to homeowners.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act played a key role in helping underwater homeowners keep their homes after the crash. But it may also have unwittingly encouraged strategic default.

Sens. Tim Johnson, chairman of the Banking Committee, and Mike Crapo, the top Republican, laid out a preliminary bipartisan agreement on housing finance reform after months of deliberation.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could return $179 billion in profits to taxpayers over the next 10 years if they continue operating under federal conservatorship, according to White House budget analysts.

Keith Pedigo, who led efforts to modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs home loan guarantee program, has joined The Collingwood Group, founded by a former FHA commissioner.

The bank likely was worried about dealing with sellers who did not have the net worth to buy back loans.

USMI, successor to the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America, says its top priority is to make sure whatever system replaces Fannie and Freddie uses at least as much private coverage.

A former managing director at the New York investment banking firm Jefferies & Co. has been convicted of multiple offenses involving a scheme to defraud customers trading in residential mortgage-backed securities.

As interest rates increase, prepayment speeds are falling precipitously, extending the maturities of mortgage-backed securities, especially the guaranteed variety. This trend is likely to cause future declines in MBS values.

Former Jefferies & Co. managing director Jesse Litvak was convicted in the only criminal case against an individual in connection with a U.S. program that used bailout funds to spur investment in mortgage-backed securities.

USMI, the new trade group being formed to replace the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, will include all of the active carriers in the industry – except AIG's United Guaranty.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to give mortgage-bond trustees evaluating a proposed $4.5 billion settlement over bad loans an extra three months to consider signing onto the deal.

The Community Home Lenders Association is pointing to President Obama's recently released budget as proof that the Federal Housing Administration has leeway to lower premiums.

A recent deal drew more than 65 buyers, addressing what initially had been a key concern about the new securities. Policymakers had originally questioned whether they would draw enough investors.

Private-label mortgage securities issuers should act now to make their industry more standardized and transparent, the senior adviser to the U.S. Treasury on housing policy said.

A jump in lender-paid policies would come at an inopportune time for the industry, which faces new regulatory requirements for such insurance, underscoring the need to educate borrowers why it is necessary.

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The increased scrutiny, mortgage bankers complain, would end recent attempts to provide home loans to borrowers with weaker credit, something the FHA has been trying to spur for years.

There is still much uncertainty as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moves into enforcement mode.

After halting an Ocwen deal to purchase mortgage-servicing rights from Wells Fargo, New York's Department of Financial Services is turning its attention to another nonbank servicer, Nationstar.