Compliance

After reaching its lowest mark in almost three years in the first three months of 2012, Interthinx’s national mortgage fraud risk index trended up again in the second quarter.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, will be the keynote speaker at National Mortgage News’ 2nd annual Mortgage Regulatory Forum on Thursday, Sept. 13 in Arlington, Va.

Fannie Mae is pressing its seller/servicers to repurchase $14.5 billion of bad mortgages but only a small portion of those buyback requests involve loans originated after 2008.

Will other correspondent buyers of residential loans follow in the wake of PHH Mortgage and exit the third-party channel?

Two identifiers will determine whether the single-family rental market securitization product will be successful: the local employment base and desirability of the neighborhood.

Controversy about what method leads to higher real estate valuation accuracy and realistic pricing is keeping up competition between vendors striving to custom fit their tools to the changing needs of their lender and servicer clients.

MetLife, the insurer seeking an exit from banking to limit U.S. regulation, was penalized $3.2 million by the Federal Reserve for lapses tied to the servicing of loans and handling of foreclosures.

The CoreLogic house price index rose for the fourth consecutive month in June and the vendor’s chief executive expects prices will remain positive during the second-half of this year.

Based on his public comments, DeMarco is not unsympathetic to the plight of underwater (but current) borrowers but there is no doubt in his mind that the adoption of a principal reduction program would spur a massive wave of strategic defaults by GSE mortgagors.

The web portal will provide homeowners with information that helps them make knowledgeable decisions about what foreclosure alternative options are available to pursue.

Florida regulators are investigating the force-placed insurance industry, the state's insurance commissioner says.

Low-income community revitalization has always been one of the most challenging jobs in housing finance. Both investors and individual buyers are hard to come by these days when cost is an issue for sellers as much as it is for buyers.

Appraisers may have started to change their business practices one at a time probably only a few years ago, but their strategy shift and where they are headed already has started to become clear.

Valued Veterans, an appraisal management company, seeks to train military veterans as real estate appraisers.

Despite signs of a recovery and increased levels of real estate lending, devaluation is expected to lead to defaults at maturity for almost half of all securitized commercial loans monitored by Fitch Ratings.

Churchill Mortgage chief operating officer Matthew Clarke states “an investment in training is so important” for a mortgage lender and the Brentwood, Tenn.-based firm is putting its money where its mouth is.

A Florida jury convicted two defendants last week for running a foreclosure rescue scheme that took advantage of homeowners who had trouble making their monthly mortgage payments.

The Home Affordable Modification Program has long since left the spotlight. But data shows that after initially dragging their feet, the largest mortgage servicers have modified nearly 70% of loans to eligible borrowers largely because they are receiving major incentives from the government.

The financial health of state housing finance agencies is mixed, Fitch Ratings reported last week.

The nation’s largest residential servicers—which just so happen to be megabanks—are marking down their MSRs to near fire sale prices.