FHA-insured loans accounted for a modest chunk of mortgage-related consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year. According to the CFPB’s annual report on consumer disputes, the bureau received approximately 37,300 mortgage complaints in 2017, 13 percent of which were related to FHA mortgages. Loans with a VA guaranty and FHA-insured reverse mortgages accounted for 4 percent and 2 percent of the complaints, respectively. Conventional home mortgages had the biggest share of mortgage complaints – 48 percent – followed by “other type of mortgage” at 28 percent. Six percent of mortgage complaints were about home-equity loans or home-equity lines of credit. For mortgage complaints, 41 percent involved making payments (such as those involving servicing, escrow accounts and posting of payments), while 37 percent were related to borrowers’ ....

Legislation was introduced this week in the House Financial Services Committee that would strengthen oversight of FHA mortgage servicers to ensure their compliance with the agency’s loss-mitigation requirements. The FHA Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2018 (H.R. 5555) would require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct servicer oversight, including sampling, compliance reviews, and direct information collection from borrowers whose files were sampled. “A decade after the devastating foreclosure crisis, we continue to see significant problems with the servicing of FHA loans that unnecessarily put homeowners at risk of foreclosure,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, ranking member on the committee and sponsor of the bill. Waters said her bill would ensure that FHA servicers help families experiencing financial hardships avoid foreclosure so that they can ...

Lenders will now be able make VA loans to veterans who wish to purchase or refinance a home that needs alteration or repair, under new guidance issued by the VA. According to the VA, it has received inquiries from lenders that have expressed interest in originating and processing loans to finance home alteration and repair. The agency noted that the aging housing stock in the U.S. has spurred an increased demand for such loans. Due to their physical condition, older homes are often sold as “cash or conventional financing,” which immediately excludes VA financing and deprives veterans the opportunity to use their VA benefit. The new policy guidance makes the VA guaranty available to lenders looking to finance home alteration, repair, renovation and improvement. It also allows improvements to be included in the value and completed after the loan is closed. The lender disburses the loan proceeds to the ...

VA Issues Guidance on Construction/Permanent Home Loans (Circular 26-18-7). The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued revised guidance designed to encourage lenders to process and originate more home construction loans for veterans. The agency has long offered a program for new home construction but the lack of detailed guidance has inhibited many VA lenders from offering the product. Construction loans are closed before the start of construction. Proceeds are disbursed to cover building costs, the cost of the land, or balance owed on the land. The remaining balance, referred to as a loan-in-process account or a draw account, is held in escrow and disbursed to the builder during construction. The revised guidance requires the lender to obtain a written approval from the borrower before each disbursement or draw payment to the builder. VA construction/permanent home loans are ...

Production of new non-mortgage ABS soared in the first three months of 2018, pushing the market to its strongest quarter since the April-June cycle back in 2008. [Includes two charts.]

Since the start of 2018, two new firms have issued prime non-agency MBS and a third player looks set to rejoin the sector. Issuers expect more competition this year due to relatively strong demand from investors for prime non-agency MBS.

The securitization of film rights is a growing market, a wide-open frontier that could be the proverbial mother lode for daring investors or a financial graveyard for the ill-informed.

After booking large one-time charges from marking down the carrying value of their deferred tax assets in the fourth quarter, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will post strong earnings for the first quarter of 2018, according to an analysis by Inside MBS & ABS.

Issuers of non-agency commercial MBS responded to risk-retention requirements by tightening underwriting standards and passing costs onto borrowers, according to an analysis by Craig Furfine, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Stearns Holdings LLC has sent out notices to investors that snatched up $250 million worth of short-term debt that it would like to buy back at least $80.0 million of the paper, which matures in 2020.