Law and regulation

Gerry Zobrist was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme that caused more than $30 million in losses to lenders.

Grant Mitchell, the former assistant general counsel at the Department of Housing and Urban Development known throughout the industry as Mr. RESPA, has died.

The reform bill authored by Sens. Bob Corker and Mark Warner requires credit enhancers to put 10% capital behind every newly issued mortgage-backed security.

When the largest U.S. banks agreed to pay $25 billion last year to settle claims of abusive foreclosure practices, they promised to stop seizing homes from borrowers who had completed applications for mortgage help.

Five years ago this month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, barely a month old, faced a crisis.

BlackRock, Pacific Investment Management, DoubleLine Capital and other bondholders are asking a court to block a proposal by Richmond, Calif., to seize underwater mortgages through eminent domain.

As more emphasis has been put on quality reviews done as close to the beginning of the origination process as possible, more mortgage market participants have been reviewing more of their loans at that stage.

The Housing Policy Council supports the GSE reform proposal crafted by Sens. Bob Corker and Mark Warner, but it goes too far in requiring guarantors to take a 10% first-loss position on privately issued MBS.

The Texas state constitution must be amended for lenders to be able to offer the HECM for Purchase product, proponents said.

Bankers at the American Mortgage Conference this year are seeking answers about how to handle renewed volatility in the market.

Regional lenders including Fifth Third Bancorp and BB&T Corp. are rooting for the Federal Reserve to let interest rates rise.

Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said Tuesday that she is preparing to unveil an alternative housing finance reform proposal to rival more conservative legislation backed by many House Republicans.

The impact is already depressing home values and freezing the market in certain communities.

We're hearing recent reform offers Home Equity Conversion Mortgages more hope.

The nation's largest mortgage lender is exploring the sale of some servicing rights because the market is flush with potential buyers and it sees little opportunity to cross-sell many servicing clients.

The House Majority Leader's failure to include mortgage finance reform in his legislative agenda for the fall has sparked more questions about whether Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Patrick McHenry and others can advance his legislation to the floor this year.

Speculation is growing that the GSE regulator is considering a reduction in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s base loan limit to $400,000 from $417,000.

Usually, loan officers with a lot of unclosed loans in the pipeline—and therefore commissions at stake—are hesitant to make a move.

Mobile cloud technology is singlehandedly changing mortgage and field servicing processes, according to at least one insider, in ways that are both evident and obscure.