Compliance

While Senate Republicans seem to have largely moved past President Obama's controversial recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it was clear Thursday that the House GOP has not.

Over the past few months eWarehouseOne has been gaining somewhat of a buzz among small to medium-sized nonbanks that have been searching high and low for a good deal in warehouse financing. But at the same time, these very same lenders have been asking a very basic question: who exactly are these guys?

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman's efforts to carve $15 million out of the state's $132 million national mortgage servicing settlement fund to provide foreclosure prevention assistance to New Yorkers came to fruition only a few days shy of the fund's expiration date.

Coming off two straight profitable quarters and flush with capital from its recent public stock offering, HomeStreet Bank, a top ranked mortgage lender in the Seattle area, is back in the good graces of its regulators.

The firm’s Mortgage Fraud Risk Report found that incidents of employment and income fraud increased 14% during 2011. This follows an upward trend seen over the last two years in which these fraud activities occurred 45% of the time.

Although Wells Fargo & Co. won't talk about its 'exclusionary' list of third-party lenders, correspondent loan buyers doing business with some of the firms say they wound up on the list mostly because of buyback disputes with the megabank.

Appraisals are costing bankers more money and, in some cases, business. Recent regulation has altered the fee structure and required more independence between bankers and appraisers.

Credit union representatives wasted no time recently when they had the opportunity to line up to ask questions of-and criticize-the National Credit Union Administration and its examiners, with one person saying his most recent exam was practically an "interrogation."

Only three of the top 10 states with the most tornados from 1980 to 2009 currently are in the so-called Tornado Alley, according to a new CoreLogic tornado and hail risk report. The change, however, is not an anomaly, as everyone believed.

HECM lenders and originators need to be increasingly proactive about reporting potential fraud and aware of how best to identify and report it if they want to mitigate potential indemnification and compliance risk, a special agent from HUD IG's office told attendees at a National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association meeting Tuesday.

While facing continued pressure from its largest investor for a management shakeup, CoreLogic expects to benefit from continued mortgage refinancing activity, internal cost cutting and the introduction of new products.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has ordered AmericaHomeKey, Inc., to immediately stop making FHA-insured mortgages and fined the Dallas-based lender $268,000.

New government aid programs for troubled homeowners are forcing cost-cutting banks into a tricky balancing act.

We all wish we could have just stayed in bed some days, and Bank of America officials have had more than their share of those days in the past week.

The CMBS market paralleled broader markets last week with buyers preparing for quarter end. The spreads were roughly unchanged week-over-week as trading volume slowed, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

Moody's Investors Service is warning that it may downgrade Assured Guaranty Corp., Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., and all affiliated insurance operating companies, an action that might make it difficult for the bond insurer to attract new business.

Bankrupt bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. had a net loss of $963 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Phoenix-based Arizona State Credit Union said it has accepted 167 applications for the Home Affordable Refinance Program in its efforts to help underwater homeowners obtain more affordable mortgages.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the senior and mezzanine structured-finance ratings on a 1999 series of single-family mortgage bonds issued by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association to A1 from Aaa and Aa2. The outlook is negative.

The loss of revenue from the naming rights of the Kodak Theatre is negatively impacting the commercial mortgage-backed security that includes a mortgage for the renamed Hollywood and Highland Center, according to a report last week by analysts at Deutsche Bank Securities.