Compliance

Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette has issued subpoenas against three national mortgage servicing providers as part of a criminal investigation pertaining to questionable mortgage documentation filings during the current foreclosure crisis.

The $200 million civil settlement with Regions Financial Corp.'s brokerage unit last week was the sort of case that the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators believe should guide industry behavior.

Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. will pay $200 million in restitution to subprime and mortgage-related bond fund investors to settle multi-regulator enforcement proceedings related to improper marketing and insufficient disclosures.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will pay $153.6 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors in a complex mortgage securities transaction just as the housing market was starting to plummet.

The National Credit Union Administration said Monday it has filed two suits against securities firms alleging violations of federal and state securities laws and misrepresentations in the sale of hundreds of mortgage-backed securities.

Radian Asset Assurance announced the successful acquisition of Municipal and Infrastructure Assurance Corp. (MIAC) on Thursday, following the approval of its regulator, the New York Insurance Department.

Ultimately, Ocwen Financial Corp.'s pending purchase of Litton Loan Servicing is likely to benefit the investors in the $45 billion of mortgages that Litton manages and some of the homeowners. That's because Ocwen has a record of moving faster than Litton to resolve troubled loans, either through modification or foreclosure.

Wells Fargo & Co. decided to exit reverse mortgages after federal officials insisted it foreclose on elderly customers who were behind on property tax and insurance payments, a Wells executive wrote in an email to business contacts Friday.

Two loan processors who defrauded lenders of $6 million have been sentenced to prison terms that will last from two to five years.

The final defendant who participated in a mortgage fraud ring conspiracy that resulted in $10.6 million in loan proceeds through false property transactions has been sentenced.

Despite fraud remaining flat for the last five quarters nationwide, CoreLogic has made projections that increases will occur over the next two quarters.

While a loan broker or loan officer is prohibited from “steering” a consumer to a lender offering less favorable terms in order to increase the broker’s or loan officer’s compensation, the loan broker or loan officer is not prohibited from “steering” a consumer to the same type of lender if the lender is offering more favorable terms! (12 CFR §226.36(e))

A federal judge Friday sentenced former Colonial Bank warehouse chief Catherine Kissick to eight years in prison after she pleaded guilty to helping Taylor Bean & Whitaker executives pull off a $2.9 billion fraud scheme that brought down both the bank and the nonbank lender.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is preparing $2 billion worth of structured asset sales that will hit the market shortly, a top agency official said Thursday.

Technology vendors are responding to the new single point of contact requirement for residential servicers with Web-based portals that give borrowers insight into the loss mitigation process.

A New York state appeals court overturned a ruling in favor of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, finding Bank of New York did not have standing to initiate a foreclosure.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance this week filed a cease and desist order against DBD Results LLC, Scottsdale Ariz., prohibiting the firm from conducting business within the state.

RealEC has rolled out a service that offers lenders the ability to push quality control from the closing table earlier in the process, with loan-level reviews during the origination process.

A top regional official from the investigative arm of HUD said Bank of America "significantly hindered" a federal investigation of the megaservicer’s foreclosure practices, according to a report from Dow Jones.

Three firms have filed a class-action lawsuit representing California homeowners who have allegedly been victimized by a network of scam artists taking advantage of individuals facing foreclosure.