Compliance

The first day after his appointment as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray indicated he intends to move aggressively to enforce the agency's expanded authority. He announced the launch of the agency's nonbank supervisory program and stated that the CFPB was already working on significant enforcement actions.

JPMorgan Chase chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon suspects a "turn" in the housing market is getting closer but a recovery may still be years away.

Due to more stringent government loan requirements and increased oversight by regulators, small servicers have experienced problems with traditional subservicers. These problems include high delinquency ratios under Ginnie Mae, high FHA curtailments, low loss mitigation workout ratios and challenges with conveying properties to FHA.

Goldman Sachs this week asked a federal court in Los Angeles to dismiss a billion-dollar private label MBS related lawsuit brought against the firm by the National Credit Union Administration.

One of the joys of living in South Florida is spending New Year's Day at the beach. This year when walking along the shore I came across a sand crab making its way toward the water. My grandchildren were fascinated by the fact that the crab didn't walk forward, but sideways. Every time my grandchildren got close, the crab stuck its head into its shell, thereby making no progress at all.

A report released by the Florida inspector general has cleared state Attorney General Pam Bondi of any wrongdoing for the resignation of two foreclosure fraud attorneys who worked in her office.

With financial institutions and mortgage servicers trying to comply with new regulations in order to mitigate their overall risk problems, the law firm Venable has decided to add a veteran finance and capital markets attorney who handles compliance and regulatory matters.

National Mortgage News (December 19) asks, “Can Regulators Prevent the Next Systemic Risk Crisis?” Probably not.

Park City, Utah - Banks are not alone in criticizing the newly-empowered Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: even some consumer advocates are piling on, raising concerns that the agency will not go far enough in rolling back preemption.

Federal regulators must levy fines against residential servicers under their purview to show there are real consequences for their "severe misconduct," according to Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin.

After months of waiting as their counterparts began examining banks, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's nonbank supervision team began the enormous task Thursday of overseeing the rest of the consumer financial sector.

On Dec. 22, 2011, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentences of Terrance "Terry" and Sonya "Cheri" Tucker, a Thousand Oaks couple who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a real estate scheme that cheated homebuyers and investors.

Advocates for Consumer Affairs, a compliance and risk management firm that audits mortgage loans nationwide, said it plans to concentrate their efforts to make sure homeowners receive loans that are enforceable from financial institutions.

Many community banks are looking to residential mortgage lending as one of the ways to increase their profit margins in the era of Dodd-Frank, notes a compliance expert at a banking industry technology provider.

It's a distinction that doesn't portray the mortgage business in a very good light. But it's a milestone nonetheless: The national Loan Modification Scam Database has now collected more than 20,000 complaints.

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to Maryland residents who lost their homes to foreclosure after receiving so-called "Pick-a-Payment" mortgages.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has suspended James Grier, the president of Section 8 apartment complex Mantua Gardens East in Philadelphia, Pa. from conducting business with the federal government.

The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based mortgage advisory firm, has acquired GWN Consulting LLC, a specialist in FHA and GNMA risk management and quality control services.

Although profit margins are still healthy for most mortgage banking firms, net income in the new year will continue to be impacted by "high" rep and warranty expenses, according to a recent report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

What a surprise! A study by the Federal Reserve Board of New York found that speculative investors in real estate played a large part in the quick run-up and subsequent devaluation of housing prices, and are responsible for more of the financial crisis than previously thought. Wow! Turns out lenders were the victims after all, right?