Industry and legal concerns that enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act made substantial changes to the federal preemption landscape are “much ado about nothing,” according to two legal scholars at the law firm Barnett Sivon & Natter PC in Washington, DC. In a scholarly work scheduled for publication in the Virginia Law and Business Review this fall, the pair addresses the view of some commentators that the Dodd-Frank Act changed the standard used to determine if a state law is preempted. Some have felt that state law is only preempted if the law...
Mortgage bankers and brokers are making a fresh push to support H.R. 4323, the Consumer Mortgage Choice Act, legislation that would change the way points and fees are calculated under the Qualified Mortgage definition in the Dodd-Frank Act. Trade groups representing these segments of the industry have made new appeals to their members recently to reach out to their respective lawmakers and garner their support for the legislation. The Consumer Mortgage Choice Act would spell out that affiliate title fees, certain loan originator compensation, and escrow payments are not included...
Three Republicans on the House Committee on Financial Services again pressed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray for additional information regarding the agency’s budget, even though Congress does not control the bureau’s purse strings. The Republicans’ justification in pressing the issue is that the bureau’s budget affects the national debt while that of the other non-appropriated federal banking regulators do not. Noting the rising of the federal government’s budget deficit and the fact that the CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve, the lawmakers...
Kansas. Judge Robert Berger of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas ruled in three decisions late last month that a mortgage naming Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as mortgagee is valid and enforceable, upholding MERS’ role as agent for its members. Judge Berger’s rulings in In re Van Nostrand, In re Huerter and In re Wilkinson found that there was no splitting of the mortgage and note because MERS held the mortgage on behalf of the note owner. “The MERS system has been scrutinized and analyzed by other courts, and, provided MERS can produce a complete...
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Director Acknowledges There Is Doubt About His Appointment. Richard Cordray, President Obamafs choice as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, acknowledged in a memo to staff earlier this year that there was some doubt about the validity of his recess appointment, Inside Regulatory Strategies has learned. gThere is a chance (a minor chance in my view, though everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion) that the appointment would be invalidated by a court,h Cordray said in a Feb. 6, 2012, gdear colleagueh...
Law firm Davis Polkfs latest progress report on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act shows that a total of 221 Dodd]Frank rulemaking requirement deadlines (55.5 percent) have come and gone, with 148 (67 percent) having been missed and 73 (33 percent) having been met with finalized rules, as of May 1. Regulators have yet to issue proposals for 21 of the 148 missed rules. gOf the 398 total rulemaking requirements, 108 (27.1 percent) have been met with finalized rules, and rules have been proposed that would meet 146 (36.7 percent) more, the report went...
The Mortgage Bankers Association is pushing a proposal to change the remittance schedule on Freddie Mac participation certificates and make them fully fungible with Fannie Mae pass-through MBS for good delivery under to-be-announced guidelines. The proposal would address the historical discount to Fannie MBS at which Freddie securities trade, said MBA President Dave Stevens during the group’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York this week. Freddie PCs typically trade 1 or 1.5 points behind Fannie MBS, a difference that Freddie Mac – and ultimately U.S. taxpayers, now that the government-sponsored...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported robust activity in their expanded refinance programs for underwater borrowers, while Ginnie Mae is looking at new procedures to identify the potential new issuers that are most likely to become strong participants in its program. Freddie officials are very focused on the expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program, said Paul Mullings, senior VP for single-family sourcing at the government-sponsored enterprise. He told attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference in New York this week that HARP now accounts for 26 percent of the refi loan...
Redwood Trust saw steady progress in growing its residential mortgage business in the first quarter of 2012, which was highlighted by two securitizations totaling $745.0 million, according to the company’s recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Mill Valley, CA-based real estate investment trust reported first quarter income of $30 million, compared to a loss of $3 million in the previous quarter and $18 million in profits a year ago. The increase resulted from a combination of Redwood’s new mortgage banking activities that include gains from the $416 million jumbo MBS...
Part of the cost to issue non-agency MBS under the new rules of the road is a stronger commitment to due diligence reviews of the collateral backing the transaction, and experts note that the process is more complex than just hiring one of the handful of companies that provide these services. “There are three basic constituencies you need to satisfy during third-party reviews,” said Eric Kaplan, managing director of mortgage finance at Shellpoint Partners during a session at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference. “There’s the law, the ratings agencies and investors...
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