Compliance

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.

Only Minnesota’s giant Mall of America draws more visitors than the Aventura, Fla.-based shopping center that backs the collateral interests in the more than $1 billion commercial mortgage-backed securitization.

Often one of the biggest obstacles to a refi has been the need for a subordination agreement from a junior lien holder.

The city of Los Angeles is seeking damages for reduced property tax revenue and the costs of maintaining foreclosed properties, the complaint says.

A lawsuit has been filed questioning the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision to block municipalities from using eminent domain to modify a distressed borrower’s mortgage and prevent foreclosures.

The City Council unanimously approved a plan to make market-value offers on toxic loans and reissue them to homeowners.

Changes may come after lenders have implemented and adjusted to the ability-to-repay rules.

It will use CoreLogic data to empower research conducted by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center.

Yields for 10-year Treasury notes rose to the highest level in more than two months Wednesday.

Cities and federal agencies have new requirements for maintaining foreclosed assets, so property preservation and servicing executives now spend lots of time poring over local codes.