Compliance

The operators of an allegedly deceptive mortgage modification business will pay more than $750,000 in ill-gotten gains to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. The settlements also permanently ban the 11 defendants from selling any mortgage assistance relief products.

Despite recent advances by credit scoring companies, the mortgage industry still questions whether credit scores can be relied on to predict borrower behavior.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded seven classes from six different Home Equity Conversion Mortgage securitizations.

Fitch Ratings has found that several types of U.S. structured finance assets have been performing way better than expectations, even far better than has been widely reported.

To expedite the legislative process, House and Senate leaders are trying to combine three major bills, including a flood insurance bill, into a single package that both chambers can pass before Congress leaves for its July 4 recess.

The House approved an amendment that would block the Department of Housing and Urban Development from finalizing a proposed rule that would expand the reach of the nation’s fair housing laws.

Once the industry realized just how horrible the housing crisis was, discussions about REO-to-rental and deed-for-lease strategies became popular and the debate continues today.

The largest RHS lender, JPMorgan Chase, is going ahead with a pilot program that allows underwater borrowers in 19 of the “hardest hit” states to refinance without a credit check or appraisal.

A new service from CoreLogic incorporates servicer stop advance data into its private-label residential mortgage-backed securities dataset.

Equifax's May National Consumer Credit Trends Report shows the total volume of severely delinquent first-mortgage loans declined to $450 billion from the peak of more than $700 billion in January 2010.

Attempts by Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. to sell off its eMagic and Myers Internet units have failed and the mortgage insurer will shut down the pair of technology providers on Sept. 1.

Despite the well-known symbiotic relationship between crime rates and the socio-economic wellbeing of a neighborhood attempts to measure the toll of crime on home values are scarce if nonexistent.

In the wake of several significant regulatory developments, and with more changes looming, it seems clear that esponsible servicing professionals will need to evolve and adapt to new realities.

CoreLogic has introduced a new tool designed to deliver summaries of the assignment document chain mortgage servicers need to comply with federal regulators.

As most mortgage industry professionals are aware, the Federal Housing Administration recently increased its mortgage insurance premiums.

A federal appeals court has denied Republic Bancorp's bid to recover $14 million it lost on securities investments because it believes the company should have been aware of the risks it was taking.

Dodd-Frank and regulations like the Volcker Rule are so complex that even regulators can't figure them out, according to Tim Ryan, president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

A judge in New York approved a $40 million settlement in an MBS class-action lawsuit against individuals formerly affiliated with now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holding.

A consumer protection clinic has been started by the California mortgage settlement monitor at the UC Irvine School of Law to help ensure state homeowners receive the proper mortgage relief as promised from the nation’s five largest servicers.

Pity the poor loss mitigation staffs at the mortgage servicers everywhere—they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.