U.S. Supreme Court.Oral Arguments in RESPA Case Scheduled. The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the RESPA case, Tammy Foret Freeman, et vir, Petitioners v. Quicken Loans, Inc. for Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012.The SCOTUS is expected to decide whether a plaintiff has to prove that an unearned fee for a real estate settlement service was divided between two or more persons. Industry attorney observers say the court’s ruling will probably determine the ability of the mortgage lending industry to decide on its own what to charge borrowers at the point of origination.Also, parties in the case are said to have finalized the arguments they will present.Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Raj Date Named Deputy Director. New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray has named Treasury Special Advisor Raj Date the bureau’s first deputy director. Date had been leading the day-to-day operations of the CFPB since it launched in July. Date’s background includes more than a decade in the financial services industry. He first joined the CFPB as head of the bureau’s Research, Markets, and Regulations division and was later named the special advisor for the agency.

Wells Fargo last week agreed to a $940,056 settlement with Maryland’s attorney general over allegedly deceptive marketing of adjustable rate mortgages originated by Wachovia and Golden West Financial, both of which Wells acquired in 2008.According to the agreement, Wachovia and Golden West offered borrowers a choice among several programs. Borrowers could choose a traditional, 30-year fixed rate, fully amortizing loan; a traditional, 15-year fixed rate, fully amortizing loan; a loan with payments of interest only; or a loan with payments that were less than the interest actually due. According to the Maryland Consumer Protection Division, Wachovia and Golden West did not fully explain to “Pick-a-Payment” borrowers who chose the fourth option that their minimum payments would not cover the full interest and that their principal debt would actually increase over time.Wells has agreed to consider loan modifications for Maryland homeowners who have “Pick-a-Payment” contracts via the Home Affordable Modification Program. If the homeowner is not eligible for a HAMP loan mod, then Wells will tap its own proprietary loan mod program. The Consumer Protection Division will contact consumers who may be eligible for restitution under the settlement.

The securitization market produced $1.182 trillion of new residential MBS in 2011, a sharp 16.6 percent decline from the year before, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Despite a strong finish in the fourth quarter, when MBS production rose 33.8 percent from the previous three-month period, mortgage securitization activity fell for the second year in a row and reached the lowest annual output in over a decade. The non-mortgage ABS market was relatively stronger. Total issuance for the year came to $126.8 billion, a 15.7 percent increase over 2010. Most of the...(Includes one data chart)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s announcement last week that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will increase their guarantee fees on new single-family MBS is likely just the first step in a progression of fee hikes over the next two years, MBS analysts predict. The across-the-board 10 basis point increase in guarantee fees for single-family MBS will take effect April 1, according to announcements by the two government-sponsored enterprises this week. The fee hike implements provisions in the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, H.R. 3765, passed by Congress and signed by...

The mortgage securitization and servicing industries say proposed changes to the servicing compensation model for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities would have a negative effect on liquidity in the to-be-announced market, hurt investors in agency MBS and increase the cost of mortgage credit for borrowers. The Federal Housing Finance Agency released a discussion paper last fall that outlined two potential new approaches to servicing compensation: a fee-for-service approach favored by the two government-sponsored enterprises, and a reserve account approach developed by lender...

Gibbs & Brun, the Houston-based law firm that spearheaded a massive investor lawsuit against Bank of America, has drawn a bead on Wells Fargo. The company announced this week that its non-agency MBS investor clients have asked two trustees – U.S. Bank and HSBC – to investigate whether ineligible mortgages were pooled in some $19 billion of Alt A and jumbo MBS issued by Wells Fargo between 2005 and 2007. Some 48 securitization trusts are covered by the action, and Gibbs & Brun said it represented investors who collectively held over a quarter of the voting rights in those trusts. “Clients...

MBS issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government will continue to maintain a zero-risk weighting under the Federal Reserve’s proposed supervisory rules for large bank holding companies, but that won’t necessarily include Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac MBS. The Fed proposal includes a wide range of issues such as capital, liquidity, credit exposure, stress testing, risk management and early remediation. It applies to bank holding companies with assets of $50 billion or more and non-bank institutions that could pose systemic risk to the financial system. The proposal reflects substantially all of the...

Issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities supported by newly originated mortgages will remain muted in 2012, according to industry analysts. A number of factors have combined to limit non-agency MBS issuance, including economic issues, regulatory issues and uncertainty regarding reform of the government-sponsored enterprises. Only two non-agency securities backed by new loans were issued last year – a total of $665.2 million in jumbo MBS from Redwood Trust. “The trickle of deals should continue into 2012,” according to analysts ...

The Congressionally-mandated increase in the guarantee fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises and the FHA will not be enough to significantly shift activity to the non-agency market, according to industry analysts. One option for increasing non-agency activity has been an increase in GSE guarantee fees, but the 10 basis point increase approved by Congress in December does not appear to be enough for most products. “The argument that it will encourage homeowners to look for non-GSE/FHA loans is pretty silly and hides the foolishness of using housing to pay for payroll tax cuts,” said Adam Levitin, an associate professor of law at Georgetown University. ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced this week that it will immediately begin supervision of non-bank servicers and lenders. The supervision became possible due to President Obama’s controversially executed appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB. “Since most of these businesses are not used to any federal oversight, our new supervision program may be a challenge for them,” Cordray said this week of non-banks. “But we must establish clear standards of conduct so that all financial providers play by the rules.” ...