Compliance

REITs, including mortgage REITs, continue to offer more attractive yields to investors even though the pace of increases has slowed down.

More than 90 members of the House are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide a legal safe harbor in the final qualified mortgage rule to protect lenders from frivolous lawsuits.

Now we’re told (but unconfirmed) that many large buyers of closed mortgages (correspondent purchasers, that is) have similar exclusionary lists, though they may call it something else.

One effect of the current default crisis is that servicers are squeezed for fees. To compete, they need to differentiate their offerings by providing more value than their competitors. How can servicers add value?

The distressed mortgage market and demand for default-servicing technology is not ebbing away any time soon. Before that happens, vendors are busy beefing up their strategic resources.

With more activity and more investor interest in the nonperforming loan market recently, it's a good idea to know what steps should be taken to protect your interests when buying or selling these assets.

The scandal brewing over alleged rigging of the London interbank offered rate has piqued the interest of the Senate Banking Committee.

CitiMortgage, a top 10 ranked correspondent buyer of mortgages, has an “exclusionary” list of lenders that it will no longer conduct business with.

Lenders facing legal challenges with respect to possible violations of the “ability to repay” standards in the qualified mortgage rule likely will face significant loan repurchase requests from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as rescissions in coverage by mortgage insurers.

CoreLogic and FICO jointly created a new consumer credit risk score that is expected to enable growth in the mortgage lending market.

The mortgage settlement between U.S. state attorneys general and the five largest servicers, in clarifying foreclosure standards for the industry, may be contributing to higher foreclosure initiation rates.

Recent delays in key secondary market regulations are among hurdles holding back the long-awaited return of the jumbo market, which some say is making some progress, but others think is too constricted by the current limits of secondary market outlets to reach a large scale.

If the courts uphold the use of eminent domain in taking mortgages, it would open the door for the cities to purchase the loans at fair value.

Todd Bettin was sentenced to over four years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a five-year scheme to divert mortgage payoff funds from clients’ who were closing on 17 Maryland properties.

THIS JUST IN: Is a new subprime lender about to emerge? I know of one industry veteran who hopes to secure financing to originate nonprime low LTV mortgages.

Nationstar says it is increasing by $125 million its bid on mortgage-related assets that it hopes to buy from the bankrupt Residential Capital Corp.

The number of fraudsters who charge fees for securitization audits, which is easily accessible and free to all, is increasing.

Regional and midtier banks are seeing rising repurchase demands from government-controlled secondary market giants.

While the scandal surrounding the rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate is expected to widen, the index is “so ingrained in the financial system” that there’s “little threat to its status as a global interest rate benchmark.

In an effort to squeeze out profits in a low-interest rate environment, banks are under increasing pressure to lower underwriting standards, offer new, potentially dangerous products and ignore operational risk.