Compliance

A New York housing counselor on Thursday was sentenced to six years in prison for bilking 136 mortgage customers who sought loan modifications.

President Obama's recent State of the Union speech, as widely predicted, turned out to be a campaign speech rather than objective, substantive oratory. GOP candidate Mitt Romney characterized the Obama speech as a 'Groundhog Day' event ... more of the same optimistic promises of things to come.

With Bank of America shedding mortgage servicing rights en masse, and a handful of other megabanks writing down their MSRs because of Basel III, prepayments and other concerns, one might think that the asset must stink to high heaven. Well, think again.

NCUA said Tuesday it disagrees with a tentative ruling by a federal judge that would dismiss its suit against RBS Securities in the failure of WesCorp FCU, a ruling that could jeopardize similar suits against JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo for the sale of risky mortgage backed securities to five failed corporate credit unions.

Federal banking regulators Tuesday issued new guidance to ensure that depositories are properly estimating potential losses on second mortgages and home equity lines of credit.

While the topic is old and familiar, the search for best strategies and a "new world order" in single point of contact borrower management continues.

Ally Financial Inc. disclosed Tuesday that it will incur a $270 million charge in the fourth quarter - and an overall loss for the entire firm - due to what it calls "penalties" imposed by regulators and the states tied to "foreclosure related matters."

If someone fell asleep in 1980 and woke up today, that person would be astounded at the progress the last three decades have brought. However, if someone fell asleep in the appraisal industry in 1980, and woke up in the appraisal industry of today, that person might barely notice a difference.

Lender Processing Services has filed a motion to dismiss charges made by Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto against the company and two subsidiaries for fraudulent business practices.

On Jan. 17, Raymond Foakes, a former leader of a Hells Angels chapter in Sonoma County, Calif., was sentenced to nearly 70 months in prison for his role in a $10 million mortgage fraud scheme. He was ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution.

One of the co-chairs of the new federal/state Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group is preparing to file cases in the next few weeks against Wall Street firms involved in the packaging and selling of MBS.

JPMorgan Chase late last week told a federal court in Wichita that NCUA's negligence suit against top executives of WesCorp Federal Credit Union proves it was the shortcomings of those executives - and not any misrepresentations by the Wall Street bank's sales force in the sale of MBS - that caused the failure of WesCorp and three other corporate credit unions.

Identity theft continues to be a major problem across the country as scammers are creating schemes to steal the identifications and Social Security numbers of individuals in order to collect money for their own needs. Luckily, these fraudsters are being caught by the Department of Justice before prolonging their scams.

The New York Times ran an editorial on Sunday, Jan. 15 on mortgage fraud. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought newspapers were supposed to print the news. There is nothing new about this piece, which once again points out that some banks are to blame for the current crisis.

The new collaboration between the federal government and certain states to investigate pre-crisis mortgage fraud will have 55 dedicated attorneys, investigators, analysts and support staff, officials said Friday.

Both criminal prosecution and civil sanctions will be used to go after those responsible for securitization abuses, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday as government officials involved in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group under President Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force formally met for the first time.

The long-running negotiations on a settlement between large mortgage servicers and the state attorneys general have been dragging on too long.

The lending industry's troubles with a controversial type of insurance coverage appear to be spreading to new areas. In recent weeks New York State's Department of Financial Services has issued subpoenas to more than 20 mortgage servicers, a dozen insurers and 20 affiliated insurance agencies, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

I watched the State of the Union speech Tuesday and came away thinking no real "mortgage" surprises tonight except for two: Obama not using the word "mortgage broker" once, and the formation of the DOJ fraud task force on securitizing loans. But what about the "The State of the Mortgage Union"?

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Administration is changing the way it monitors the loan performance of its largest lenders as part of a rule to clarify and codify its indemnification practices.