Compliance

Violations related to third-party providers such as appraisal management companies can lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to pursue enforcement actions and assess special fees against lenders.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing regulations that expand mortgage relief options available to homeowners who owe more than the current market value of their homes and share benefits with investors.

Standard & Poor’s expects the credit quality of new issue commercial mortgage bonds to deteriorate in 2014 as the result of increased competition among lenders.

The bank reduces servicing expenses by $1 billion per quarter.

More than 1,800 financially distressed homeowners lost a total of at least $12 million in fees they paid the Rodis Law Group and America’s Law Group.

Other businesses are doing away with them in favor of salaries but originators are reluctant to do the same.

A group of state regulators issued a paper calling on federal regulators to do a better job of exempting small banks from their regulations, including urging the CFPB to provide more exemptions for small banks to its qualified mortgage rule.

The new division among other things will offer services related to mergers and acquisitions, benchmarking reports, compliance, operational reviews, and leadership, management and organizational strategy.

Nationstar is bringing to market a $154-million-plus residential mortgage-backed securities deal backed by seasoned, nonconforming collateral, according to a Standard & Poor’s presale report.

This is the largest U.S. Countrywide MBS class-action settlement filed on behalf of investors, according to plaintiffs’ lead counsel.

Banks are looking for investments and the guarantee fees for conforming loans keep rising, making the larger loans more appealing.

In perhaps one of the most significant but least talked about changes, mortgage servicers will be facing revised statutes governing qualified written requests under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

Cash-rich banks are using adjustable-rate mortgages as a hedge: the loans’ longer-term payments will move in tandem with the lenders’ expected increases in borrowing costs as interest rates rise.

Senators warned that using guarantee-fee revenue to offset government spending will complicate Fannie and Freddie reform.

The Netherlands is auctioning off mortgage-backed securities it acquired when it bailed out ING Groep NV in 2009.

The funds are intended to support housing, business and infrastructure needs beyond those addressed by other forms of public and private assistance.

Requiring only independent mortgage bankers to meet certain education standards is “patently unfair” for both independent mortgage bankers and consumers, according to Mortgage Bankers Association president David Stevens.

Commercial mortgage-backed securities with balances at or below $10 million dominated transfers to special servicing in 2013 and there is reason to believe the trend will continue, analysts say.

The qualified mortgage rule’s implementation was supposed to give mortgage-backed securities market participants more certainty about collateral value, but remaining questions about government policy keep PLMBS a work in progress.

The Pittsburgh regional bank previously resolved Fannie Mae repurchase demands for an undisclosed sum.