Compliance

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is pushing back against claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sophisticated investors that should have done a better job of vetting their purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

Many of the country's largest banks received $6 billion in kickbacks from mortgage insurers over the course of a decade, according to a previously undisclosed investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

When the Federal Housing Finance Agency late Friday unveiled its $200 billion lawsuit against investment banking firms that sold faulty MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it also targeted executives who signed the original shelf registration documents on the securities in question.

The nominee to be the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said he prefers to use "supervisory tools" as opposed to litigation to enforce consumer protection laws.

Effective immediately, FHA-approved supervised lenders that are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of Thrift Supervision, or National Credit Union Administration whose consolidated assets do not meet the threshold required by those agencies for submitting audited financial statements (delineated at 12 C.F.R. § 363.1(a), 12 C.F.R. § 562.4(b)(2) and 12 C.F.R. § 715.4(c)) are not required to submit audited financial statements to FHA, nor an audited computation of net worth.

In an attempt to award the handling of certain business practices for Las Vegas condominium homeowners' associations to fraudulent companies, Steven Wark has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Of the many plays one can visualize in any football game, the "prevent defense" is one that likely causes some of the most "what the" moments. Essentially, the standard defensive line is abandoned trading rushing for coverage with seven or more players in a defensive back role, the goal of which is to prevent the opposing offense from completing a long pass by ensuring that no receiver can get behind the defense.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency late Friday filed a massive multi-billion civil suit against 17 firms that played a role in selling faulty subprime MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – including the government owned Ally Financial and Fannie's biggest customer at one time, Countrywide Financial Corp.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is on the verge of filing a barrage of civil claims against investment banking firms that packaged nonprime loans into mortgage-backed securities while misrepresenting the quality of the underlying collateral, according to a new published report.

The Federal Reserve Thursday afternoon slapped Goldman Sachs with an enforcement action, saying its Litton Loan Servicing division engaged in a "pattern of misconduct" tied to robo-signings.

Goldman Sachs & Co. can complete the sale of its mortgage servicing subsidiary to Ocwen Financial Corp. now that the parties have agreed to a settlement with the New York superintendent of banks over alleged abusive services practices, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Appraisers will be following new procedures for gathering and reporting property data starting Thursday, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac move forward with the appraisal requirements of their Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

Municipalities are increasingly holding mortgage securitization trustsliable for the upkeep of properties, which could affect investors'cashflows, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

The percentage of early defaults on FHA-insured loans originated by MortgageIT “skyrocketed” after it was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 2007, according to an amended complaint filed by New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Freddie Mac's fraud investigation unit is reaching out to Realtor associations and real estate agents to educate them about how to prevent fraudulent short-sale activities from taking place.

Credit Suisse and the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield are being sued by two resort developers for fraud and RICO conspiracy charges.

A real estate agent from Brooklyn, N.Y., has been indicted for participating in a mortgage fraud scheme where he obtained more than $50 million in loans from several banks and lenders.

A new integration into the Mortgage Builder loan origination system allows users to order CoreLogic income verification services directly from the LOS.

A victim in a foreclosure scam and sale/leaseback transaction cannot state a TILA claim because the victim is not a “consumer” and the transaction is not a "consumer credit transaction" within the meaning of TILA. See Scott v/ Dearcp REO. Inc.TILA ¶¶ 1.04[16]. 1.04[17],U.S.D.C. NJ.

Fannie Mae has agreed to settle multi-million dollar claims brought by several of the biggest victims of the massive CU National Mortgage scandal, more than two years after the fraud brought down the largest independent mortgage wholesale provider to credit unions.