Risk management

The mortgage industry is welcoming the Obama administration's possibly final word on housing finance reform, hoping it will serve as guidepost for the future.

The CFPB sent letters Thursday to 44 mortgage lenders and brokers warning them of potential reporting violations related to their mortgage lending activities — infractions the bureau is increasingly pushing lenders to take seriously.

Barclays is trying to draw a line at $2 billion in penalties to settle a U.S. investigation into its sale of mortgage securities after it received an opening offer that it considered too high.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will require underperforming servicers to document the technology and process changes they're making to implement the agency's recently released servicing regulations.

Fannie Mae is planning to provide relief to lenders from potential buybacks for loans in which the borrower's income, assets and employment information have been validated through automated underwriting.

In an election year dominated by controversy and big personalities, political contributions from the mortgage industry have remained muted, reflecting apathy and uncertainty toward Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Greg Carmichael, who has been on the job nearly a year as Fifth Third's CEO, has started putting his stamp on the company by aggressively trimming branches in favor of mobile, seeking to build up its consumer credit business and retooling the balance sheet.

The mortgage industry remains deeply uneasy with efforts by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator to experiment with front-end credit risk transfers, with some arguing it helps borrowers and lenders, while others fear it will cut out small institutions.

In a move designed to help further calm lender fears about mortgage repurchase liability, Fannie Mae is preparing to offer immediate representation and warranty relief to lenders that use its suite of automated quality assurance technology.

Lenders asking whether bank loans are safe are missing the point and should instead be more concerned with the standard they apply when underwriting them.

The Internal Revenue Service's indefinite delay of a deadline for a new authentication procedure has headed off concerns about potential interruptions in mortgage production.

Lenders and servicers haven't faced the same scrutiny over data security as their peers in retail and other financial services sectors. But mortgage companies must remain vigilant, as the extensive data they collect can expose consumers to identity theft if it got in the wrong hands.

Recently launched low-down-payment mortgage programs are presenting new opportunities for fraud. But new data and monitoring tools can help lenders mitigate those risks.

Bayview Asset Management is securitizing $159.6 million of securities that transfer the risk of credit losses on mortgages insured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to experiment with up-front risk sharing deals, some small mortgage lenders are worried they will be left out of the action.

Within hours of taking the reins at Wells Fargo, new chief Tim Sloan pledged to finish the reforms begun by his predecessor, John Stumpf, who stepped aside Wednesday in an attempt to quiet the phony-accounts scandal that has rocked the company.

The Wells Fargo phony-accounts scandal is barely five weeks old, but it felt like John Stumpf had been hanging on for five years.

The No. 3 U.S. bank by assets has made a change at the top after a snowballing scandal involving the creation of fraudulent accounts.

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Unfortunately, it's taken years of widespread regulatory upheaval for mortgage servicing to find it necessary to start thinking about technology innovation.

Servicers have long skimped on technology investment, leaving legacy systems that can't keep pace with compliance demands. But rising costs and a new round of regulations are compelling both servicers and vendors to finally address these deficiencies.