Law and regulation

New York's banking regulator unleashed a verbal assault on nonbank servicer Ocwen Financial Wednesday, saying the company's claims about tech-driven efficiencies are "too good to be true."

Sens. Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo are close to unveiling a highly anticipated bipartisan bill to overhaul the mortgage finance market as the window for moving legislation this year continues to narrow.

Centralized databases inside the loan origination system provide an efficient way to comply with the Qualified Mortgage requirements and more efficiently use loan information from origination to servicing and securitization.

Leading origination outsourcer cites "input" from activist investor Orange Capital.

The court’s finding in one case is consistent with the provision in the mortgage that allows the lender to do whatever is necessary to protect the value of the property.

The Securities and Exchange Commission imposed the ban after Lee Farkas was found guilty of bank, wire and securities fraud in April 2011 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new notification requirements for property valuations have rekindled old debates over appraisal alternatives and are expected to add costs alongside yet another layer of mortgage litigation risk.

Regulatory intervention throws a monkey wrench into a mortgage servicer's growth plans—and calls into question whether there are enough nonbanks to absorb all the servicing banks want to sell.

Banks are looking at a regulatory plan to dramatically expand the data collected on mortgages as a potential ally in their battle to ease separate rules that they say will curb access to credit.

The bureau wants to expand data collection to detect troublesome trends and effectiveness of QM rule.

Freddie Mac plans this year to start regularly issuing the credit-linked notes it began using as a form of risk-sharing last year.

Hendrix Montecastro and his mother were both convicted in a $142 million scheme.

The New York regulator questioned Ocwen’s ability to handle more volume after an independent monitor reviewed the mortgage servicer’s operations, a person familiar with the situation says.

The appraisal industry has seen many changes within the past few years, and with greater oversight and scrutiny coming from every direction—appraisers are under the microscope.

Job and income growth could pave the way for lenders to loosen guidelines late in the year. In the meantime, new regulations and repurchase risk are keeping the industry gun-shy.

A Connecticut man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that cost financial institutions millions of dollars.

The Federal Housing Administration's long-awaited decision to start accepting electronic signatures on mortgage documents will cut down on costs and streamline operations for banks and other mortgage lenders. But the industry still faces several hurdles before it can reap the benefits of this technology upgrade.

Plucky mortgage bankers and brokers across the country are betting they can address the needs of the purchase market better than their cost-conscious competition.

Lynn E. Szymoniak, famous for helping to uncover the robo-signing scandal, is now suing 22 companies for allegedly creating fraudulent documents and submitting tens of thousands of false claims to HUD.

The GSE’s first STACR transaction of 2014 seeks to offload the risk of a $31 billion mortgage pool with comparable credit scores but higher loan-to-value ratios than in recent securitizations.