Law and regulation

The Senate Banking Committee dug into the details Tuesday of how to ensure that community banks retain access to a reformed housing finance system as agreement over a broad approach began to emerge.

The federal government’s role in mortgage finance must be addressed to determine if there’s a better way to originate, package and deliver loans to investors and attract new private capital into the marketplace, says Alan Bahr.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency told the government-sponsored enterprises to stop compensating mortgage servicers for expenses related to captive reinsurance arrangements.

An additional role brought to light by the housing crisis was the need to prevent foreclosure and administer the Hardest Hit Fund.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development had alleged that Bank of America violated the Fair Housing Act by requiring applicants on parental leave to return to work before approving loans.

Certain types of oversight or regulation could help resolve an apparent challenge linked to a shift in collateral weighting, but the reality is that the market is unregulated in this area.

WE’RE HEARING competition in the correspondent channel is heating up and some banks are reaching out to mortgage brokers and asking them to join their “mini-correspondent” programs.

The agency prepares to sell MSRs left over from a 2009 failure.

The industry is uncertain how regulators will enforce the new rules. Most lenders are shying away from non-QM lending for now. And if credit is tightened, what will the effect be on the economy?

Lenders may think they know enough about the dangers QM can bring. But there are other parts of the rule they are not focusing on yet that they should be concerned about.

The Federal Reserve in two adverse scenarios will gauge bank resilience against declines in the prices of high-risk, high-yield loans and debt and some high-priced real estate markets around the country.

Efforts to adjust to new market demands and comply with a heavily regulated mortgage lending marketplace involve anything from massive layoffs to speeding up loan processing automation.

The new underwriting tool could make it safer to originate higher-priced loans.

The deal will include $245 million of securities that Fitch Ratings plans to assign BBB- rankings.

Another big law like Dodd-Frank could be harmful to the mortgage market, but an incremental approach to housing finance reform might be the perfect solution.

The FHFA is squeezing banks to repay losses that taxpayers were forced to cover because financial institutions sold faulty mortgage bonds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Accurate documentation and reasonable conclusions regarding current market property value are important given that there is more regulatory uncertainty on the horizon.

This case underscores the continuing trend of the agency to look past agreements to examine the true substance of the transactions at issue.

The suit against Borders & Borders backs the author's opinion regarding these business arrangements.

NAMB asks HUD to remove broker compensation from 3% points and fees limit.