Compliance

In Origination News’ discussion with the officers of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals at its annual convention in Tampa, national housing correspondent Lew Sichelman asked how the changes to federal law have impacted the state’s education requirements and how conditions are in the various markets that make up this very diverse state.

Lender Processing Services has reached a settlement with the Missouri attorney general, dismissing criminal charges that were pending against its now-defunct subsidiary DocX.

One of the biggest compliance and litigation risks for lenders involves the performance of branch managers.

On July 25, U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt sentenced Clint Bryson Rogers of Scottsdale to five years in federal prison for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Rogers pleaded guilty on Jan. 18 to conspiracy to commit the crimes of false loan application, wire fraud and money laundering.

Lenders that shift to a retained servicing model must make significant modifications to their technology and processes.

CitiMortgage will be the second correspondent mortgage investor to use a technology and services offering from Ellie Mae that provides tamper-proof versions of borrower verification data on loans sold by correspondent lenders.

Mortgage refinancings once again drove banks' profits last quarter and, with interest rates at record lows, most industry experts expect the trend to continue at least through the end of the year.

A former Minnesota Vikings tight end has reached a settlement with federal regulators over his alleged misdeeds at a Minneapolis-area community bank.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were among the winning bidders for the sale of roughly $4.5 billion of additional assets from the Maiden Lane III portfolio.

Servicers of securitized commercial mortgage loans beware of the still-elevated delinquency rates.

In expanding its note sale pilot program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is imposing new certification requirements on servicers that are willing to assign defaulted FHA loans for the upcoming sales.

Out of the 92 actions filed by Pennsylvania's Bureau of Compliance, 90 orders were against companies for statutory violations, resulting in fines of $277,525.

Chicago is the latest city to pass a resolution to hold hearings on whether to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages from private investors.

In total, more than $10 million in fraudulent mortgages on more than 40 properties were obtained during the conspiracy.

Several large and regional banks have disclosed what their capital ratios would look like if Basel III were in effect now and early results show that First Horizon National, Huntington Bancshares, SunTrust Banks and TCF Financial would take the biggest capital hits if they do not take steps to change their asset mix.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has formalized a trend toward regulators holding the industry increasingly responsible for having a mechanism in place to police their own compliance, and they are nearing the point at which they might be starting to make sure the industry is in fact doing this.

Distressed homeowners have received only 10% of nearly $46 billion in federal aid since the money was allocated in 2009 under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

What's a mortgage loan originator to do when he discovers that one of the trade lines in an applicant's credit report actually belongs to a relative with a very similar name?

New advances are providing technology to mortgage industry and secondary market participants that allows them to access detailed information about residential mortgage-backed securities.

Although there still are risks to be accounted for, Wayne Tew believes this is a good time to be in the mortgage business.