Compliance

Mortgage interest rates may be at historically low levels, but the housing industry is not helping the overall economic recovery in the U.S. With the secondary market all but dried up except for Freddie and Fannie, who together purchased over three-quarters of originations in 2011, getting a mortgage these days is near impossible—perfect borrowers need only apply.

Accused of price gouging, kickbacks and borrower mistreatment, insurers QBE and Assurant sparred with the New York Financial Services Department in a Thursday hearing on force-placed insurance.

Let's assume that the recent downdraft in rates won't get any worse and then ask this very basic question: will those buying MSRs at today's rock bottom prices look like geniuses when the smoke finally clears?

New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services decried "perverse incentives" in the force-placed insurance market on Thursday and recommended banning insurers from the standard practice of making payments to referring banks.

Here's a fact you may not be aware of: properties governed by homeowner associations are the most rapidly growing form of housing in the U.S. today. Nearly 80% of new home construction is connected with an HOA or community association, according to the Community Associations Institute, the trade association representing HOAs.

Short sales outnumbered REO sales in 12 states in January, RealtyTrac said, indicating that lender-servicers have agreed to sell the home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage, therefore preventing a borrower from going through the foreclosure process which costs more than executing a short sale.

Despite strong bipartisan support, a bill that would provide banks greater assurance of confidentiality when they provide information to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau remains mired in the Senate. Exactly why is hard to unravel, but most industry representatives point to Sen. Bob Corker as the chief roadblock.

Out of all of the SARs filed from depository institutions in 2011, possible mortgage fraud was reported on 92,028 files, compared to only 70,472 the prior year.

Allonhill, a mortgage due diligence provider that two weeks ago lost a consulting contract with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has given layoff notices to dozens of employees, according to industry consultants who were briefed on the matter.

Citing the $2 billion loss at JPMorgan Chase, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is calling for the enactment of a new version of the Glass-Steagall Act.

Dissatisfaction is growing in Congress with the Obama administration’s decision to leave mortgage investors out of talks that led to a $25 billion settlement.

Dissatisfaction is growing in Congress with the Obama administration’s decision to leave mortgage investors out of talks that led to a $25 billion settlement.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s reasoning in an amicus brief and broke ranks with other courts in ruling on a borrower’s right to rescind and void a mortgage contract.

The Federal Housing Administration will begin collecting full, electronic appraisal reports for the mortgages that it insures.

The FHFA has created a financial incentive for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure that deadlines for the Uniform Mortgage Data Program are met.

New findings show persisting foreclosure problems in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas are deteriorating for the first time in over six quarters.

Today's mortgage bankers have to accept very, very long audits as a marketplace reality. Whether they find auditors likeable and useful, on the other hand, is highly disputable.

TriLyn has formed an investment management platform focused on opportunities in high-yield commercial real estate debt.

A group of Wall Street banks and ratings agencies told a federal court in Miami that “greed” and the need to grow earnings was responsible for the 2009 demise of Eastern Financial Florida CU, the one-time $2.4 billion credit union, not alleged fraud on their part in the sale of $100 million of risky financial derivatives known as collateralized debt obligations.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. posted a small profit for the first quarter of 2012 and last week announced a deal with Deutsche Bank over soured mortgage backed securities.