Mortgages

The Treasury Department's inspector general said while the OCC focused on loan workout policies at major servicers, its supervision from 2008 through 2010 was "not sufficient in scope or application to identify significant weaknesses in national banks' foreclosure documentation and processing functions."

The expanded Home Affordable Refinancing Program kicked into full speed during the first quarter with volumes doubling to 180,000 units compared to the prior period.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "underestimated" the risk of poor foreclosure practices at national banks and did not devote enough examination resources to identify those problems, according to the agency's chief watchdog, the U.S. Treasury's inspector general.

The latest round of weaker-than-expected U.S. employment numbers has driven the long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield to yet another record low.

So folks who recall that the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county market was one of the hardest hit during the housing crash might question the sanity of starting a total of 6,300 more apartments so soon after the debacle.

With all the troubling news coming out of Washington for lenders these days, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a much-needed win to the industry last week. In Freeman v. Quicken Loans, the U.S. Supreme Court held that no cause of action existed under RESPA for a lender’s retention of a marked up fee.

If you’re looking for a patch of brightness in the national job numbers that came out Friday morning look at the mortgage brokerage employment line: broker firms added 2,300 loan officers and other staffers to their payrolls in April.

The Government National Mortgage Association approved 35 issuer licenses last year and hopes to approve about the same this year, according to agency president Ted Tozer.

Is the Government National Mortgage Association actually making progress in clearing its backlog of issuer applications? Answer: It all depends on who you ask.

Fannie Mae bought just $52 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in April, a 45% plunge from March, according to new figures released by the GSE. Freddie Mac bought $26 billion of loans, a 39% decline from March.

Employment in the residential finance sector fell to 266,100 full-time positions in April from 267,600 in March, a difference of about 1,500 jobs.

Abacus Federal Savings Bank and more than a dozen of its former employees are facing criminal charges related to a scheme in which it allegedly falsified information on mortgage applications so that unqualified borrowers could secure loans.

Newly initiated foreclosures by the Federal Housing Administration jumped 247% in April from a year earlier, while the overall number of foreclosure starts fell 3.1% in the same period.

Ellie Mae’s stock will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded on the NYSE-owned American Stock Exchange since the Pleasanton, Calif.-based mortgage technology vendor’s $45 million initial public offering in April 2011.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau served official notice that it is seeking comment on a range of issues—including the cost of potential litigation—and whether debt-to-income ratios should be used to determine a borrower’s “ability to repay” a residential loan.

Deloitte says that assets controlled by the shadow banking system—including asset- and mortgage-backed securities—have declined by more than 50% in the last four years, to $9.53 trillion at Dec. 31.

There are redundant quality control measures used in the third-party origination process that might be resolved if market participants could overcome compliance concerns and trust issues and agree on a neutral, secure data platform or best practices, according to a recent industry discussion.

By a voice vote, the House of Representatives passed a 60-day extension of the flood insurance program that will keep the program running through the end of July. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week decided to delay the issuance of a final "qualified mortgage" rule until after the Nov. 6 elections. The scoop was first reported by National Mortgage News on its website Thursday. This new development has prompted many loan officers and nonbank lenders to speculate that maybe (just maybe) the CFPB will delay its compensation proposals until well into next year.

Technology Credit Union is offering pre-approvals for home loans and a “quick close” guarantee for those who qualify.