Housing finance reform – including a potential liquidation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – is moving along in the Senate with one major hurdle looming in the background: Democrats, for the most part, don’t want anything to do with it.
The Department of Justice has directed its prosecutors to seriously consider dismissing meritless False Claims Act complaints from whistleblowers if they do not serve the government’s interests and help defendants, including mortgage lenders, avoid lengthy and costly frivolous lawsuits.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs this week that he’s committed to housing-finance reform, wants to maintain the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and get more private capital back into the housing market.
A robust market in mortgage servicing rights reinforced ongoing trends shaping the home-loan servicing business in 2017, a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis reveals.
Even though residential originations could fall by as much as 20 percent this year, lenders are continuing to pay top dollar for high-producing loan officers, in what some call a “pricing war.”
Several private mortgage insurers have announced they will no longer insure mortgage loans with a debt-to-income ratio exceeding 45 percent when combined with weaker credit profiles.
Ginnie Mae late last week cautioned servicers in its single-family mortgage-backed securities program to pay more attention to “acceptable risk parameters” that could affect their participation in the program.
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau threw a substantial bone to mortgage lenders and servicers, issuing a formal request for information on the civil investigative demands it has used extensively, and controversially, under the leadership of its former director, Richard Cordray.
The mortgage servicing rules promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continue to be a source of headaches for many in the industry, particularly in the context of bankruptcy proceedings. Late last week, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition wrote CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, detailing three of its primary concerns in this regard.
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