Compliance

Through the first three quarters of 2011 The Golden 1 Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif. had by far the most mortgage originations of any CU in California and it is actively advertising for more.

Mortgage originations today contain many of the same risk characteristics as found in years past, but Teresa Halleck said there is one important difference.

Even though third-party due diligence has always been performed on whole loans, the providers of these services have more skin-in-the-game now that rating agencies have very stringent requirements.

The current vice president of the Hells Angels' Sonoma (CA) Chapter has to serve a year in jail and pay $130,000 in restitution to SunTrust Mortgage for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

After having gone through an enormous disruption characterized by unexpected deterioration and massive losses, investors in residential mortgage-backed securities have a number of reasons to feel unsettled.

Joseph Smith has assumed his duties as the monitor for the $26 billion foreclosure settlement and he will be responsible for making sure five mega-servicers live up to the terms of the agreement and reform their servicing and foreclosure practices.

Non-agency MBS investors should look for bonds with smaller loan sizes in a structure that is levered to severity, said Amherst Securities Group analysts in a recent report.

If the new RMBS deals issued in the past week give an indication of what the non-agency market space will look like, then it is clear that only the best will do.

The potential sale of the Maiden Lane III (ML III) assets might signal that the Federal Reserve is making its move to take liquidity out of the system, securitization experts said Thursday.

There have not been very many weeks yet this year where the markets have not been roiled about something, and the last week was not one of them either.

Wells Fargo, the successor to Wachovia Capital Markets, told a federal court in Wichita, Kan. Friday it should dismiss NCUA's suit over mortgage-backed securities Wachovia sold to offering prospectuses.

As bankruptcy filings become more common in Utah, there is a need for law firms to hire more attorneys to be able to protect consumers and businesses with their legal problems.

A federal court has frozen assets at five California companies that are being investigated for trying to scam U.S. homeowners facing foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission says it has opened an investigation into companies, which charged its customers up to $10,000 for legal advice and forensic audits.

There often has been more talk than action in some cases when it comes to bringing old deal-types back to the new-issue securities market. But two notable transactions did emerge recently, and investors considering them should take note of how they and today's environment differ from what was seen in the past.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is warning state homeowners to beware of phone solicitations from scammers claiming to provide assistance related to the recent national mortgage servicing settlement.

In the early days of the financial crisis investors were lining up for the mother of all loan auctions. It was thought to be the best buying opportunity for bad debt since the S&L crisis. And then a funny thing happened: banks and investment bankers decided not to dump their nonperforming loans, at least not in large numbers - or at fire - sale prices.

The owner and founder of Metro Dream Homes has to serve 150 years in prison for his role in leading a $78 million mortgage fraud scheme.

Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay civil money penalties and conduct a review of 60,300 foreclosures conducted by its former servicing subsidiary, Saxon Mortgage Services, as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Reserve Board.

Minor adjustments in the approach to distressed property data analytics and communication with the homeowner may separate a foreclosure from a sustainable workout. The key is in considering all the data involved, including factors that are not strictly related to servicing and field services.

WASHINGTON - A mortgage lender accused of discriminatory lending practices is planning to fight back against a Justice Department lawsuit - a move that may embolden other banks to follow suit.