Compliance

Although Bank of America entered into a $2.8 billion buyback settlement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac late last year, it is looking at additional repurchase claims regarding the two GSEs, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As mortgage fraud activity continues to be a persistent problem throughout the country, information and data companies have developed new tools in order to monitor fraudsters and prevent them from stealing not only money from borrowers, but their identity, too.

Wells Fargo & Co. has reached a $590 million agreement to settle civil claims with disgruntled investors in Wachovia-issued securities that were sold between 2006 and 2008, according to a securities filing Friday.

The founder and part owner of appraisal management vendor AppraiserLoft resigned as CEO this week, saying he wants to pursue new business ventures in mobile technology application development.

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals plans to set up a legal fund to help residential loan brokers defend against buyback claims being filed against them by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has petitioned to intervene in the proposed $8.5 billion Bank of America Corp. private label MBS settlement.

Atlanta real estate developer Shi Shailendra is facing several lawsuits in which he allegedly influenced five Georgia banks, four collapsed state banks, and 12 current and former senior banking executives to collude with him in a $100 million Ponzi scheme.

In one of the first actions of its kind, the National Credit Union Administration late last week filed a civil claim against a local real estate appraiser in Salt Lake City, saying he provided a faulty appraisal for a loan that caused roughly $400,000 in losses at the defunct Utah Central Credit Union.

Equifax announced its acquisition of back-office processing, closing and post-closing service and technology provider DataVision Resources Tuesday.

During these difficult financial times, title agents have created schemes that attempt to steal money from borrowers and financial institutions for their own benefit.

Phil Sotelo, the owner of Realty Executives Sotelo & Associates was arrested for mortgage fraud for recording phony documents at a county office and refused to leave his north Modesto home after it was sold at public auction, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

MDR Mortgage and its founder and president Robert Luce are facing a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice for the alleged misrepresentation of Department of Housing and Urban Development-insured loans.

A new report by Amherst Securities Group examines how the recent Bank of America settlement has the potential to significantly impact Countrywide securities that comprise the Covered Trusts. Although the market seems to treat these securities in the same way, Amherst said that the impact will vary from security to security.

U.S. senior fixed-income investors are taking a more conservative view of cross asset credit conditions on the back of recent macroeconomic concerns, according to a Fitch Ratings fixed-income forum survey of fixed income professionals, conducted in June.

In a major defeat for the National Credit Union Administration, a federal judge Friday agreed to dismiss negligence charges brought by the federal regulator in a civil suit against 11 directors of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union, all of them prominent figures in the credit union movement.

Texas Tech Federal Credit Union in Lubbock has chosen MRG's Miracle Online platform for its mortgage document preparation needs.

State regulators fined Mortgage Access Corp., an affiliate of realty giant Weichert, $3 million for using unlicensed mortgage originators. The settlement covers 10 states.

The heads of CMBS trading at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs departed from their respective firms late last week.

The policy that prevents mortgage servicers from initiating foreclosures in the name of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. became permanent this week after parent company Merscorp Inc. finalized changes to its procedures and quality assurance manuals.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Wednesday filed suit against UBS Americas for misrepresenting the quality of private label, non prime MBS it sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the housing and mortgage boom.