Risk management

The Federal Housing Finance Agency appears poised finally to allow principal reductions, but it's been nearly a decade since the mortgage crisis and underwater borrowers are much fewer thanks to higher home values.

The agency may finally be reaching resolution on whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow principal reductions, two years into Director Mel Watt's tenure as agency director and nearly a decade after the mortgage bubble burst.

Fannie Mae is marketing its second offering of the year of Connecticut Avenue Securities transferring the credit risk on mortgages that it insures.

As a handful of new issuers enter the market and the implementation of a key regulation pave the way for subprime securitization's comeback, the volume of new loans that are actually available to the market remains a question.

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital shut its doors after it was stuck with nonagency loans with TILA/RESPA integrated disclosure issues that it couldn't sell.

The Federal Housing Administration revised its proposed lender certification requirements on Tuesday in an effort to provide more clarity and reassure lenders they won't be penalized for minor loan defects or mistakes.

Ginnie Mae needs more and better paid staff to keep up with growing risks on nonbank seller/servicers, the watchdog agency head said.

To hear some former examiners tell it, companies that are hostile during the exam process may get dinged more often than those that show respect and professionalism. Following are tips to ensure bankers do better on their next exam.

Home equity lenders are putting more loans on the books, thanks to increasing property values. But utilization rates are falling, not increasing, and older loans are paying off at a faster clip than lenders can replace them.

QRM clarified the rules of the road for securitizations. Now, participants in the MBS world seeking better margins are looking beyond the safe harbor — to the subprime space.

The collateral for Agate Bay 2016-2 includes some residential mortgages that failed to comply, at least initially, with "Know Before You Owe" disclosure rules that took effect in October.

Lenders and servicers that haven't complied with the Federal Housing Administration's lower cap on late fees better do it soon.

Market volatility and new regulatory burdens are thinning the ranks of commercial mortgage lenders that underwrite loans for securitizations. Activity is slowing down as a result, and it is unclear if banks and insurers will fill the void, especially outside the largest cities.

The agency that insures government loan securitizations could use some more subservicers because it is concerned that so much of its issuance gets outsourced to a small number of players.

Whether it's an intentional bait-and-switch or a misunderstanding on the originator's part about compliance requirements, here are seven things lenders should be careful not to misrepresent when communicating with borrowers.

First Federal Bank of Kansas City has agreed to a $2.8 million settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve allegations of redlining in African-American neighborhoods.

New services seek to replace lender processes that often involve manually updated spreadsheets and other efforts pieced together to meet steepening regulatory requirements for vendor management.

After imposing a virtual moratorium on adding new issuers, Ginnie Mae is again accepting applications from mortgage companies seeking to pool loans for securitization and servicing.

Understanding how consumers pay their debts over time is expected to widen access to credit for consumers recovering from financial problems or who were hard to score before. Just how many it will benefit is an open debate.

Amid growing scrutiny of how the hand-off of mortgages is managed after loan closings and bulk sales, servicers are working to automate the entire process to create a consistent and accurate onboarding experience for borrowers.