Compliance

Mortgagees will be able to view sponsored originator performance information in Neighborhood Watch. On a monthly basis, FHA will aggregate sponsored originator performance for a rolling two year period. A link to the sponsored originator performance will be added under the Early Warnings menu selection.

Sb1 Federal Credit Union of Philadelphia is still trying to find out how to identity thieves were able to tap into a customer's home equity line of credit, steal his private information – including passwords – and convince the credit union to wire $220,000 from the HELOC to an unrelated account in Hong Kong.

With Fannie Mae suing insurance carriers over coverage for the $140 million fraud at U.S. Mortgage/CU National Mortgage, credit unions victimized in the scandal are wondering whether any recovered funds will be used to compensate them for their losses.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has hired a private law firm as it continues to review subpoenaed loan documents from banks and Wall Street firms that sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac private-label MBS.

A former loan originator in the wholesale business is pondering getting back into the market as a loan officer after being gone for three years. Grapevine users share their opinions on current volume, the future of interest rates, and the prospect of making money down the line.

While fraud risk had trended down dramatically through 2008 and even into early 2009, in mid-2009 and 2010, it started to creep back up again, according to Frank McKenna, vice president of fraud strategy for analytics provider CoreLogic.

Any mortgage fraud reported today might not get dealt with until at least two years from now because federal agents are still dealing with cases from 2005-2008, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents told the Northeast Conference of Mortgage Brokers in Atantic City, N.J.

Major mortgage servicers’ internal reviews of foreclosure documents extend far beyond robo-signers’ affidavits verifying a borrower’s mortgage debt.

The California 4th District Court of Appeal held that brokers for home sellers have a legal duty to tell buyers about mortgage problems such as a short sale where existing lender may not accept less than what is owed and that might prevent sales from closing. Brokers are "obligated to disclose to the buyers" when there is "a substantial risk that the seller [can] not transfer title free and clear of monetary liens and encumbrances."

Former Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder and CEO Angelo Mozilo and two of his top lieutenants at the once highflying lender/servicer have agreed to settle a massive civil fraud complaint filed against them by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Pennsylvania Department of Banking's Bureau of Compliance, Investigation, and Licensing has launched an initiative to identify unlicensed mortgage activity in Pennsylvania. The department will target all mortgage licensees and is expected to continue into 2011.

To secure title insurance on REO sales, Bank of America has agreed to indemnify a major insurer if the title is challenged due to robo-signings and other improper foreclosure processing practices.

A Nigerian national who headed a multi-national identity theft and fraud ring, which involved stealing money from home equity lines of credit accounts, was sentenced to 69 months in prison.

On Sept. 29, Lawrence William Dunning, 78 of Highland Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,889,492 followed by three years of supervised release for mail fraud. Additionally, three individuals have been sentenced for their roles in the multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme or other related offenses, and two more individuals await sentencing.

As waves of foreclosures and a strained economy continue to ravage neighborhoods throughout the country, public agencies, private companies and residents are banding together to develop solutions to preserve their communities and make sure they come back stronger than ever.

Following the latest "foreclosure-gate" headlines, rumors are sparking that due to the "MERS mess" there may issues with getting title insurance. Many say this could "snowball out of control and get ugly." Find out more here.…

Four different speakers that run the gamut within the lending industry will come together at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual meeting in Atlanta to discuss how insider fraud is still running rampant within the mortgage lending space.

If he had a half-million dollars of his own, Roy DeLoach said he would be filing suit to stop the Federal Reserve Board’s loan officer compensation rule because of its anti-competitive nature.

A licensed real estate broker who appraised loans for Staley Credit Union in Decatur, Ill., was convicted Friday of providing phony appraisals on 40 real estate loans, which may cost the lender $1 million in losses.

With massive delays feared for many foreclosures, should brokers move away from the big banks and work with small community banks to carve their niche in the business. Find out what Grapevine users have to say about how government regulations could impact lending practices. Click here to read more.