Law and regulation

The three-year-old U.S. consumer protection agency said it discovered that the largest mortgage servicers have been mishandling loan modifications and harming borrowers since new rules came into effect in January.

Federal and state laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, require title companies to develop a written information security program that describes the procedures they employ to protect non-public personal information.

A final piece of Bank of America Corp.'s record $16.7 billion toxic-mortgage settlement is being held up by an internal fight at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said four people familiar with the case.

Making the GSEs out to be the villains of the mortgage crisis is an easy sell to a fearful and angry public, but doesn’t make it true. Partly due to this mindset, housing markets remain held hostage.

A lender which paid millions in connection with a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent decree has been sued civilly in a class action pertaining to the same activity.

Regulators issued a proposal on Friday that would require banks to escrow premiums and fees for flood insurance on mortgages made or refinanced after Jan. 1, 2016.

The Ryland CEO says new Fannie and Freddie low-down-payment loan products could have a big impact on next spring's selling season.

Most of the securitized single-family market is currently exempt, but only a tiny part of the commercial equivalent is. However, nonexempt commercial will get more expensive to issue, and the single-family exemption could change.

Mortgage lenders will have 210 days to fix errors in their calculations of points and fees and reimburse borrowers for any overages under a final rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve Board and Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday both signed off on an interagency rule requiring securitizers to hold 5% of the credit risk on loans sold to investors.

New York banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky's latest crackdown on Ocwen Financial may undo Ocwen's deal to buy billions of dollars of mortgage-servicing rights from Wells Fargo, and it could complicate similar deals involving other banks and servicers.

Richard Davis says despite recently announced changes to reassure lenders about putbacks, he will stay on the sidelines due concerns about compliance and litigation risk.

Freddie Mac's securities have traded at a disadvantage to Fannie's for years. A $650 million subsidy ensures lenders will receive nearly the same price as Fannie pays for loans.

While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wait for Congress to decide when and how to act on housing industry legislation, the government-sponsored enterprises are working with their regulator on "nonlegislative GSE reform" that will better prepare them to implement new laws.

The risk retention rule unveiled Tuesday was hailed by the industry for its definition of a "qualified residential mortgage," but analysts say a comeback for private-label securitization still faces huge obstacles.

Recently released HMDA data strongly suggest that the reason minority homeownership rates are falling since the beginning of the recession isn't because minorities are opting out of the mortgage process, but because they're being excluded.

New York banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky is sending a new warning shot over the bow of Ocwen Financial, which has been scrutinized by regulators for more than a year.

Lenders increasingly find themselves responsible for protecting clients’ money and non-public personal information as those funds and data pass through several vendors that are part of the mortgage process.

U.S. regulators finalized a securities risk retention rule on Tuesday designed to set the stage for the future of the secondary mortgage market.

The GSE regulator's second attempt to stimulate the mortgage market is receiving a lukewarm reception from lenders, who remain gun-shy after being forced by Fannie and Freddie to repurchase billions of dollars in soured loans since 2008.