Law and regulation

Regulators have published the latest catalog of places outside metropolitan areas where lending will earn banks credit toward their Community Reinvestment Act obligations.

The American Securitization Forum protested a North Las Vegas vote to move forward with an advisory agreement to further evaluate the use of eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray defended the agency's new mortgage rules, data-gathering activities and single-director leadership structure.

The GSE regulator should direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to use the same credit underwriting standards in their automated underwriting systems, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

As of June, 167,680 homeowners decided to leave their home that lenders have foreclosed upon.

Amid speculation over who will succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman, there are no signs that President Barack Obama has begun a formal search.

When it comes to whether to outsource valuations or keep them in-house, opinions can be fierce, but the best advice is to not close the door to either until one has carefully examined all the pros and cons in line with which best matches a particular company’s size or situation.

Lawmakers and industry officials continue to issue warnings about the impact of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability-to-pay rule, despite recent efforts by the agency to amend certain provisions to assuage industry concerns.

ServiceLink has made available a multipurpose tool designed to ensure the mortgage loan data lenders and servicers report and record electronically is accurately transferred and in compliance with regulators.

Mortgage industry consulting firm zIngenuity has acquired Irwin Reinsurance Corp., a Vermont-domiciled captive reinsurance firm, and merged it into what it describes as a an indirect subsidiary called zInsureRe in the Cayman Islands.

A leading credit union executive called on Congress this morning to exempt credit unions from new Qualified Mortgage rules that would generally bar them from making subprime and other risky mortgages.

Is the bar set so low that investors must dictate to servicers what the minimums are and how to manage the very basic elements of our business?

Where industry credit limits stand and why was among the topics discussed by a group of industry executives convened by Origination News at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York.

Banks are pushing to overturn a legal theory that allows fair lending suits when there is no evidence that the lender intentionally discriminated against a particular racial or ethnic group, as long as the bank's policies had a disparate impact on minorities.

A proposal by Mortgage Resolution Partners, known for some controversial past plans that involved addressing underwater loan concerns with eminent domain, is slated to be considered by the North Las Vegas City Council this week.

Consumer advocacy groups are calling on Michigan lawmakers to refrain from passing a new law that would strip certain homeowner protections during the foreclosure process and threaten the still fragile housing recovery.

Tight credit is limiting economic growth and disenfranchising the vast majority of middle and lower income borrowers from becoming homeowners, according to Lewis Ranieri.

Industry groups are growing skeptical about the prospects for a FHA reform bill as we get closer to the summer solstice.

Bankers defended force-placed insurance practices and dodged questions about alleged industry kickbacks and price gouging at a private but well-attended meeting hosted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The new webpage has compliance guides for the qualified mortgage rule, the loan compensation rule, the servicing rule and other mortgage rules along with compliance videos.