Compliance

Saying that mortgage brokers are facing "extinction," the National Association of Mortgage Brokers is urging its members to learn about pending legislation that would "outlaw" yield-spread premiums and then call their members of Congress to complain.The trade group has set up two conference calls -- one scheduled Nov. 2 -- to inform its members about Rep. Barney Frank's Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007, which, among other things, would require all brokers to have a minimum net worth or a bond requirement of $100,000. A Democrat from Massachusetts, Rep. Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. NAMB government affairs chair Denise Leonard sent an e-mail message to members saying that if the bill passes, "all subprime lending will cease to exist." The association can be found online at http://www.namb.org.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued a preliminary injunction barring the Department of Housing and Urban Development from enforcing its new regulation prohibiting downpayment assistance by charities if any part of the funds came from the real estate seller.The injunction will be in effect until the court decides whether the regulation is valid, the court said. The regulation was to take effect on Oct. 31. "We believe that the findings of the Court underscore the weakness of HUD's actions in developing and implementing its rule in the first place, particularly while Congress is still actively working on the subject, as well as HUD's failure to consider reasonable proposed alternatives," said Scott Syphax, president and chief executive officer of DPA pioneer Nehemiah Corporation of America. The plaintiffs in the case are: AmeriDream Inc., The Genesis Foundation, Home Downpayment Gift Foundation, The Sovereign Grant Alliance, The Future Home Assistance Program, and Partners in Charity Inc.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced that he is suing First American Corp. and its eAppraiseIT unit for allegedly colluding with Washington Mutual Inc. to use a list of preferred appraisers to inflate mortgage appraisals.According to the AG's office, eAppraiseIT -- in a scheme detailed in numerous e-mail messages -- caved in to pressure from WaMu to use a list of preferred "proven appraisers" who provided inflated appraisals on homes. The e-mail also shows that executives at eAppraiseIT knew their behavior was illegal, but intentionally broke the law to secure future business with WaMu. "The blatant actions of First American and eAppraiseIT have contributed to the growing foreclosure crisis and turmoil in the housing market," Mr. Cuomo said. "By allowing Washington Mutual to hand-pick appraisers who inflated values, First American helped set the current mortgage crisis in motion." Howard Glaser, a mortgage industry consultant based in Washington, says the Cuomo action marks the most significant legal action to date by the state or federal government in the wake of the mortgage meltdown. "The Cuomo suit sheds light on what has been an open secret in the mortgage industry, pressure by banks on appraisers to hit a particular target value in order to close a loan," he said.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants to start the mark-up of his controversial predatory-lending bill on Nov. 6.The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act would establish a minimum federal lending standard (but not pre-empt state lending laws) along with a limited form of assignee liability for securitizers of subprime mortgages. The bill (H.R. 3915), co-sponsored by Reps. Brad Miller and Mel Watt, both North Carolina Democrats, also appears to ban the payment of yield-spread premiums to mortgage brokers. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers is seeking a clarification to this anti-steering provision.

Six homebuilders have entered into settlements totaling $1.4 million for alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and agreed to stop participating in captive title reinsurance arrangements, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.HUD Assistant Secretary Brian Montgomery said there is "no legitimate purpose" for single-family captive title reinsurance. "It is increasingly clear to us that these complicated business arrangements serve no other purpose than to hide referral fees and kickbacks, which are expressly forbidden by law," he said. As part of the settlements with HUD, Pulte Homes Inc. agreed to pay $466,000; KB Home, $456,000; Beazer Homes USA Inc., $261,000; Ryan Group Inc., $84,000; Meritage Homes Corp., $66,000; and Technical Olympic USA Inc., $52,000.

The president-elect of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers says the Department of Housing and Urban Development does "not care about true simplification" of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, and he vowed to vehemently oppose HUD's latest RESPA proposal.The proposal, which had not yet been released officially, includes a four-page good-faith estimate instead of a one-page GFE favored by the NAMB, Marc Savitt told attendees at the Southeast Mortgage Brokers Conference (sponsored by the Georgia Association of Mortgage Brokers) in Savannah, Ga. Mr. Savitt charged that HUD had bowed to pressure from other industry participants, contending that the RESPA proposal is about market share, not simplification. He said the new rule is similar to one HUD proposed back in 2004 but with the packaging provisions removed. Mr. Savitt vowed that the NAMB would "hit them with everything we have." In response to the 2004 rule, a grassroots campaign resulted in 45,000 letters of protest. "That is nothing compared with this time," he predicted. He called on mortgage brokers to contact their customers and have them write letters to HUD. Mr. Savitt told the conferees that the NAMB has attorneys in place ready to file a lawsuit against HUD as soon as the rule is formally published. The association can be found on the Web at http://www.namb.org.

"The fraudsters are the vampires" many homeowners have to fear because they "suck the blood from our communities," says Alicia Shepard, founder of the Georgia Real Estate Fraud Prevention and Awareness Coalition.Speaking in Savannah, Ga., at the Southeast Mortgage Brokers Conference sponsored by the Georgia Association of Mortgage Brokers, Ms. Shepard said legal efforts to prosecute those who commit fraud have had mixed results. In her former neighborhood of Moorings IV in the Atlanta area, while there have been some arrests and convictions, the overall lack of successful prosecutions has destroyed neighborhood morale and unity, she said. Gwinett County authorities told Ms. Shepard and her family that the county could not protect them anymore, and she recounted incidents of abuse to her pets and property. As a result, her family had to leave what she termed their "dream home." Ms. Shepard said even upscale communities in the area, such as Wolf's Creek, while successful in many efforts to combat mortgage fraud, still have scars.

The safe-harbor provisions to protect securitizers from liability in a House predatory-lending bill would create "more stringent" underwriting standards for subprime mortgages than banking regulators currently require, according to the comptroller of the currency.Comptroller John Dugan told a House panel that the bill (H.R. 3915) establishes "brighter and stricter" rules for subprime lending than the federal regulators have issued for banks and would restrict the supply of subprime credit. To qualify for the safe harbor, subprime loans must meet an ability-to-repay standard, income must be documented, debt-to-income ratios cannot exceed 50%, and the loan must be underwritten to the fully indexed rate, including insurance and taxes. The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., to provide more flexibility. "We strongly recommend that Congress carefully consider the potential impact of these safe harbors before hard-wiring them into the law," MBA senior vice president Kurt Pfotenhauer testified.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is preparing to issue an "alert" soon that warns Federal Housing Administration lenders about paying "excessive" fees to non-FHA-approved mortgage brokers."We are concerned [that] consumers are being charged excessive fees," a HUD spokesman said. He said HUD is planning to warn FHA lenders soon that these fees could be "duplicative." While non-approved brokers can refer clients to FHA lenders, they are not allowed to take FHA applications or originate FHA loans. Nevertheless, FHA lenders are soliciting non-approved brokers to bring them customers and loans to process. HUD investigators have found that some lenders are charging borrowers points and paying $4,000 to $5,000 to the brokers. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers said it condemns this practice, which circumvents the FHA's approval process for originators. "This loophole needs to be closed as part of FHA reform" legislation, NAMB president George Hanzimanolis said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has given the green light to the recent request by AmeriDream Inc., Gaithersburg, Md., to prolong its ability to provide downpayment assistance until Feb. 29, 2008."We are pleased to reach an amicable agreement with HUD in our common mission to serve low- and moderate-income homebuyers," said AmeriDream president Ann Ashburn. The new deadline does not include other DPA providers, who are required under a HUD rule to stop their seller-funded DPA operations by Oct. 31. "HUD will recognize all applications that have a signed sales contract prior to the effective date, according to its congressional testimony," the DPA reported. Moreover, the affordable housing nonprofit said, "This agreement will facilitate litigation on an orderly schedule and provide the court with ample time to consider the merits of this important dispute." AmeriDream can be found online at http://www.ameridream.org.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers is hoping to find some middle ground with House Democrats on a provision in a newly introduced predatory-lending bill that would ban "incentive" payments to originators, including yield-spread premiums that are a broker's main source of compensation."I understand their intent is aimed at incentive payments," NAMB executive vice president Roy DeLoach said, where a securitizer pays an additional premium for certain types of loans. The NAMB agrees that incentive payments should be banned. "We want to clarify that an origination fee can be paid by the lender to the brokers," Mr. DeLoach said. Otherwise, the mortgage brokers will be forced to oppose the bill introduced on Oct. 22 by Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Brad Miller, D-N.C., and Mel Watt, D-N.C. "The indirect compensation mortgage brokers receive from lenders is a defendable fee that actually lowers closing costs to consumers," NAMB president George Hanzimanolis said. The NAMB can be found on the Web at http://www.namb.org.

Lack of income documentation on securitized subprime mortgages would allow borrowers to rescind the loan and recover transaction costs under a predatory-lending bill introduced by House Democrats that comes down hard on stated-income loans.The bill, co-sponsored by North Carolina Congressmen Brad Miller and Mel Watt, creates a minimum national standard for mortgage originations that applies to all lenders and mortgage brokers. Securitizers would be required to conduct due diligence and sampling to detect possible lending violations. The bill also creates a safe-harbor provision and allows securitizers 90 days to cure a mortgage to avoid penalties. To qualify for the safe harbor, the loans must meet four basic standards -- ability to repay, income documentation, a debt-to-income ratio not exceeding 50%, and disclosure of costs for insurance and taxes. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass, stressed that the assignee liability provision only applies to securitizers, not investors. Democrats plan to mark up the bill in the next few weeks. "The securitizers don't have to guess what kinds of loans" would get them into trouble, Rep. Frank told reporters. "It is well spelled out in the bill."

State attorneys general are not going to take a back seat to the Treasury Department's Hope Now initiative when it comes to working with and monitoring the top 10 subprime servicers and their loan modification activities, despite the suggestions of one mortgage industry group."We think the Hope Now initiative and our initiative are very complementary," Iowa AG Tom Miller said. It is important to have people at the local as well as the federal level involved in the monitoring, he added. In a letter to the Iowa AG, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition said the Treasury is putting together a coordinated effort to prevent foreclosures and that requiring servicers to work with two initiatives will make them less effective. "We believe that by concentrating our efforts in the Hope Now Alliance, we will be able to maximize the benefit for the citizens of your state," CMC executive director Anne Canfield says in the letter. Mr. Miller told MortgageWire that the top 10 servicers have agreed to work closely with a group of state AGs and banking regulators. "None of them have indicated they are not going to honor their commitment," he said.

The Senate Banking Committee has approved a five-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program and a seven-year extension of the federal government's terrorism insurance program in strong bipartisan votes.By a 21-0 vote, the committee passed the NFIP extension bill that would forgive $21 billion in debt accumulated by the flood insurance program in the 2005 hurricane season and phases out subsidized premiums for vacation homes and properties with repetitive flood losses. The Senate bill does not expand coverage to include wind damage, as a House-passed flood bill did, because committee leaders are uncertain of the costs and concerned that it would sink the bill. By a 20-1 vote, the committee approved an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act that the Bush administration says it can support. The House is working on a 15-year extension of TRIA along with expanding coverage to include nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological acts of terrorism. The Senate bill includes a study of such expanded coverage.

LoanToolbox, Westlake Village, Calif., has signed an alliance agreement with Carson, Calif.-based Document Systems Inc., a developer of mortgage technology for compliant loan document preparation and customer contact management solutions.Under the agreement, LoanToolbox will make DSI's LoanMagic broker point-of-sale software available free for one year to new LoanToolbox subscribers. LoanMagic, developed in 2000, is the first fully integrated mortgage customer contact management system designed to meet the needs of loan officers, LoanToolbox said. The built-in loan program analysis tools allow loan officers to instantly create and e-mail side-by-side comparisons of any of the 10,000 loan programs already built into the system. Connections embedded in LoanMagic allow easy access to Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter, Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector, and over 190 of the nation's credit report suppliers, LoanToolbox said. LoanToolbox can be found online at http://www.loantoolbox.com, and Document Systems can be found at http://www.docmagic.com.

Clayton Holdings Inc., a provider of information-based analytics and consulting based in Shelton, Conn., has announced the introduction of Clarity, a new system that it terms "the next generation in due diligence."The system gives loan buyers/securitizers "greater insight into the risk profile of portfolios" at the time of purchase, a projection of losses, and new options to reduce potential losses, the company said. Clarity uses a predictive approach that incorporates Clayton's proprietary risk-filter technology built on data collected in its surveillance of more than $1.5 trillion of subprime and alternative-A mortgage-backed securities. Unlike traditional due diligence, which reports on whether loans meet an acquirer’s guidelines, Clarity scores individual loans and the overall portfolio for credit, compliance, collateral, and estimated loss risk, Clayton said. Third-party data and technology can also be integrated into the process to assess collateral and fraud risk. "Clarity can help issuers identify the riskiest loans, better target due diligence efforts, and project and reduce prospective losses," said Keith Johnson, president and chief operating officer of Clayton. The company can be found online at http://www.clayton.com.

ValuFinders Inc., a provider of valuation services based in Culver City, Calif., has introduced a service that helps originators comply with a Department of Housing and Urban Development Mortgagee Letter regarding accountability and fraudulent appraisal reports.The service, called Appraisal Concierge, was unveiled at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in Boston. Under HUD Mortgagee Letter 2007-11, dated Sept. 6, 2007, lenders will share responsibility with the appraiser if a poor or fraudulent appraisal leads the FHA to insure a loan at an inflated amount. "Lenders and brokers will soon be just as responsible for fraudulent and deficient appraisals as the appraiser," said Joe Williams, chief executive of ValuFinders. "Our system is an independent portal that acts as a 'middle man' in accepting orders and facilitating the deliverables back to the lender." Appraisal Concierge is described as an outsourcing database that lets lenders and brokers order appraisals through the Web. The system randomly selects an appraiser from a pool. "This service bypasses communications between lenders or brokers and appraisers," assuring appraiser independence, Mr. Williams said.

Did John Robbins pick "the wrong year" to chair the Mortgage Bankers Association? Not by his account."It was a terrific year," in every sense of the word, Mr. Robbins said in his final address to the MBA at the group's annual conference in Boston. Noting that the word means "intense" and "frightening" as well as "marvelous," the 2007 chair said that if anything was accomplished during his year at the association's helm, it was that the MBA was heard, loud and clear. "The MBA leadership made more appearances before Congress, gave more interviews to the press, and had more one-on-one meetings with legislators and regulators than in any other year in the MBA's 94-year history," he said. As a result, he added, no onerous predatory lending laws were passed, at least on the federal level, and progress was made on good legislation that would reform the Federal Housing Administration and simplify the lending process.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is proposing to correct its loss severity calculations for mortgage defaults, which could substantially increase Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's risk-based capital requirements.Under the current equations, the government-sponsored enterprises record profits, instead of losses, on foreclosures of government-guaranteed loans and loans with low loan-to-value ratios. These changes would have increased Fannie's RBC requirement by $7.5 billion to $9.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006 and Freddie's by $4.5 billion to $5.4 billion. Fannie exceeded its RBC requirements by $16.1 billion that quarter and Freddie exceeded it by $21.4 billion. If finalized, this rule would negate any benefits the two GSEs expect when OFHEO releases them from the requirement to maintain a 30% capital surplus, according to Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington consulting firm. The regulator is expected to roll back the capital surcharge when the GSEs return to timely financial reporting next year. There is a 90-day comment period on the proposal.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., has drafted a bill that temporarily increases the caps on Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolios for six months so the two mortgage giants can purchase modified or refinanced subprime loans.The bill would increase the caps on the companies' $700 billion portfolios by 10%, but 85% of any mortgages purchased must benefit struggling subprime borrowers. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. "The six month/85% bill that I am filing seems to me responsive to the immediate needs to help people avoid foreclosure," Rep. Frank said. The House committee chairman is also preparing to introduce a bill aimed at stopping abusive lending practices. And he is planning to hold hearings on and mark up the predatory lending bill this year. The committee can be found online at http://financialservices.house.gov.