Compliance

Multiplying federal and state regulation has triggered the issuance of new rules and requirements further down the chain at the local level and is pressuring mortgage banks to find new ways to stay in compliance.

New technology and approaches are making automated valuation models more accurate.

Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused Washington Council chairman Kwame R. Brown with mortgage fraud, saying he lied on his home mortgage application as part of a scheme to buy a $50,000 power boat.

A higher number of conduit loans that back U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities are being liquidated, and at a lower average loss severity rate. But as special servicers try to manage vintage deals more losses are expected this year and the next.

Lenders and servicers must meet Fannie’s requirement to satisfy homeowners-association claims on certain distressed properties by July 1 in order to preserve their first-lien position.

Appraisal management is still not perfect but it continues to improve, and it has come a long way from where it was just a few years ago, according to Judy Wheatley, a senior vice president at Indecomm.

An executive at a real estate investment trust that invests in agency and nonagency MBS said proposed credit risk-sharing opportunities with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are among the type of investments his firm would like to buy into.

Any successor to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be structured as a cooperative which would prevent Wall Street firms or megabanks from controlling access to the secondary mortgage market.

A FINRA panel is taking action against Brookstone Securities and three individuals connected to the company, alleging CMO fraud.

Assembly Bill 2610, sponsored by Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), and Senate Bill 1473, sponsored by Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), will require purchasers of foreclosed homes to give tenants at least 90 days before starting any eviction proceedings.

Monetary policymakers should recognize that the housing bust will have a lasting effect on the U.S. economy and should adjust their expectations to relatively slow GDP growth.

Multiplying federal and state regulation that has triggered the issuance of new rules and requirements further down the chain at the local level is mounting pressure on mortgage banks in search of new ways to conduct mortgage loan reviews and ensure they stay in compliance.

Regulatory pressures have given the mortgage industry headaches along with a renewed motivation to create more efficient solutions.

As Fannie Mae's July 1 deadline approaches, lenders and servicers must meet the GSE's requirement to satisfy homeowners association claims in order to preserve their first lien position.

When veteran regulator Tim Long announced his retirement from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last year, the agency quickly replaced him with David Wilson, its deputy comptroller for credit risk. To do so, however, officials had to work around the strict ethics rules governing federal employees because Wilson, who would oversee supervision policy for all national banks, is married to a high-level executive at Bank of America.

Green Tree Servicing, a unit of Walter Investment Management Corp., will begin servicing about 4,000 Bank of America mortgages this month as part of the bank's mandate to hire delinquent-loan specialists under a widely watched investor settlement.

Wil Armstrong, CEO of Blueberry Systems and chairman of Cherry Creek Mortgage, discusses how origination technology can help lenders' retained servicing strategies.

Are the instructive lessons of the past sufficiently integrated into current industry business models and strategic planning?

Orrstown Financial Services has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it misled investors about its financial strength during its March 2010 stock offering.

The California State Legislature passed legislation on two issues that will be included in the state’s Homeowner Bill of Rights and help protect homeowners from mortgage scams.