Compliance

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating several residential servicing shops for abusive practices – including inaccurate payment records and charging excessive fees -- according to FTC associate director Joel Winston.

Keystone Asset Management has recently completed an audit that assures the company is complying with regulations within the mortgage servicing industry.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said there has been an 88% year-over-year increase in mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports filed in the second quarter.

Standard & Poor's, Moody's Corp. and Fitch Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that their ratings of nonprime MBS were faulty and caused five Ohio public employee pension funds to buy into these money-losing investments.

A growing list of failed thrift reports is helping the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency learn how to avoid the mistakes made by the Office of Thrift Supervision.

Freddie Mac's restrictive repurchase review policy on defaulted loans may prevent the GSE from recouping "billions of dollars" in losses from lenders, according to a new investigative report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Risk mitigation provider Interthinx has launched its Quality Control Review Services product that combines the firm's automated technology platforms with loan-level audit expertise.

A licensed loan officer in North Carolina who worked for Beazer Mortgage Co. has been charged with three counts of mortgage fraud.

FACTS

Back in 2006, Fannie Mae officials knew that attorneys representing the GSE were filing false documents in foreclosure proceedings but did nothing about it, according a new inspector general report.

Several large Wall Street firms that played a key role in financing nonprime lenders this week asked a federal judge to dismiss a nearly $2 billion civil fraud lawsuit filed by the trustee of Thornburg Mortgage, the now defunct jumbo/super jumbo lender.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is still falling short when it comes to keeping a watchful eye on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins this week filed suit against MERSCORP, seeking a judicial determination of whether the industry's use of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System is legal in the Lone Star State.

BuildFax and DataVerify have come together to create an automated solution that confirms if a proper appraisal was conducted for newly constructed properties.

The housing finance sector will have to wait until next year for the final rule on what constitutes a 'qualified residential mortgage,' the unofficial head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a regulatory forum in Washington.

The chief author of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act took exception to what he called "the revolt against risk retention," saying requiring originators to hold 5% of the loan amount on their books is "one of the central things we did in the bill."

Eight years ago a Bear Stearns research report on the mortgage insurance industry warned of a grave threat: In exchange for steering home buyers to the insurers, mortgage lenders were demanding unjustifiably lucrative reinsurance deals.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development wants All American Home Mortgage Corp. to indemnify the Federal Housing Administration against future losses on five loans that were endorsed for more than $1 million that violated industry guidelines and reimburse the agency $181,515 for associated fees paid on one loan that had underwriting deficiencies.

Mike Perry, who led IndyMac Bancorp until its collapse in 2008, is trying to rehabilitate his image, waging a public campaign rarely seen from an executive of a once high flying mortgage lender.

The California Department of Real Estate has revoked the broker license of Bic Pho along with his affiliated corporations Mariposa Mortgage and Vision Quest 21 for multiple acts of mortgage fraud involving the use of straw buyers and falsified loan applications.