Compliance

A new Lender Processing Services offering helps servicers match first and subordinate liens on a property to streamline the process of modifying mortgages for distressed borrowers.

Treasury Department officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on ways to structure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS, allowing private investors to share in some of the credit risk on government-guaranteed securities.

Credit unions are working to protect their net interest margins without adding undue interest rate risk and CFOs expect their attention in the second half of the year will remain on squeezing what they can from investment portfolios.

Residential Capital’s bankruptcy filing on May 14 is a credit negative for two major bond insurers, Moody’s Investors Service said.

Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Ratings will rate the $1.1 billion CMBS conduit deal backed by 61 fixed-rate commercial mortgage loans that are secured by 80 properties.

While rules can be attractive when setting monetary policy, they cannot replace analysis, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley.

When the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced in the spring of 2011 that a group of major mortgage servicers had signed consent orders agreeing to a host of new regulations and reforms, the regulatory landscape of the mortgage servicing industry was fundamentally altered in ways that would have a profound and lasting impact.

Combining Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s MBS in the TBA market sounds like it is not impossible, but is much easier said than done.

Officials at Old Republic International Corp., and its new private mortgage insurance holding company Republic Financial Indemnity Group Inc. are still talking about plans to once again start underwriting mortgage insurance policies.

What often seems to be overwhelming regulatory compliance demands will "continue to be an issue" for the foreseeable future, according to one analyst, who is recommending all credit unions have a designated compliance officer.

Amherst notes that lending standards in FHA/VA programs have remained “roughly constant” with more activity gravitating toward the two programs.

The Treasury Department's inspector general said while the OCC focused on loan workout policies at major servicers, its supervision from 2008 through 2010 was "not sufficient in scope or application to identify significant weaknesses in national banks' foreclosure documentation and processing functions."

Abacus Federal Savings Bank and more than a dozen of its former employees are facing criminal charges related to a scheme in which it allegedly falsified information on mortgage applications so that unqualified borrowers could secure loans.

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network director Jim Freis' departure reflects a fundamental disagreement between Treasury and Freis over the role Fincen plays and just how independent it should be.

By a voice vote, the House of Representatives passed a 60-day extension of the flood insurance program that will keep the program running through the end of July. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature.

The national mortgage fraud risk index decreased 4.3% in 1Q 2012 from the previous quarter and 3.1% from a year ago.

The housing crisis is one of the longest lasting effects of the economic recession, with home foreclosures continuing to stain our economy. As more homes enter and remain in foreclosure, the servicer (whether on its own or on behalf of the investor) is responsible for maintaining these properties per local and state regulations. And mobile apps have added a new tool servicers can use in the field.

The Deloitte Center for Financial Services says that assets controlled by the shadow banking system—including money-market mutual funds and asset- and mortgage-backed securities -have declined by more than 50% in the last four years, to $9.53 trillion at Dec. 31.

Wells Fargo in an agreement that dismisses a lawsuit filed by area officials said it would provide $4.5 million worth of mortgage downpayment and home renovation assistance to certain borrowers in the Memphis region as well as put another $3 million into other local initiatives.

Back in the year 2000, when Franklin Raines held the title of chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., sponsored the Housing Finance Regulatory Improvement Act. This bill not only asked for increased oversight over Fannie and Freddie but also recommended unifying the regulation of Fannie and Freddie under one roof.