Democrat Sens. Tom Carper (Delaware) and Mark Warner (Virginia), the authors of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s preemption amendment, recently wrote Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, expressing surprise and disappointment at the Treasury’s interpretation of the provision. Earlier in the month, George Madison, the Treasury’s general counsel, wrote to the OCC to comment on the agency’s proposed rule on federal preemption, saying that Dodd-Frank’s preemption provision does not uphold the Barnett standard...

Lawmakers and regulators seem increasingly cognizant of the potential their actions to improve mortgage servicing may have to exacerbate the difficult environment servicers are confronting in terms of helping struggling homeowners, unclogging the backlog of housing inventory and complying with all necessary laws and regulations in the process. Industry representatives hope that awareness will keep policymakers from going overboard, but they remain anxious while multiple sets of potentially inconsistent and conflicting servicing standards are in play...

Mortgage servicers that have not yet contemplated adjusting their practices to conform to the principles illustrated in the consent decrees federal regulators issued earlier this year against 14 top servicers, as well as the June 30 guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, better think again, and quickly, a leading industry attorney is recommending. “I think the OCC’s guidance is a clear statement of regulator expectations as to the performance of bank servicers, both in terms of looking back and addressing past issues and in creating an appropriate compliance structure going forward,” Andrew Sandler, chairman of the BuckleySandler law firm, told Inside Regulatory Strategies. “The expectation should be that other regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will have very similar sets of expectations.”..

The controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to hit the ground running with bank supervision and examination when its doors officially open for business on July 21, even though there will be no Senate-confirmed director in place as of kick-off. “The new consumer agency is here to make sure that markets work for American families, and our bank supervision program is a big part of that,” said Elizabeth Warren, special advisor to the secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB. “Starting on July 21, we will be a cop on the beat – examining banks and protecting consumers.”...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Associate Director Raj Date told lawmakers earlier this month that mortgage servicing will be one of the CFPB’s priorities as soon as it’s open for business. In particular, Date told lawmakers at a joint hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit that the agency will begin addressing two structural problems in the mortgage servicing market, one of which is that the vast majority of borrowers do not get to choose their mortgage servicer...

Overlooking investor overlays in mortgage loan underwriting can be quite costly and could expose lenders to regulatory risk and liability. iServe Residential Lending, a retail mortgage banker in San Diego, believes it has found the ultimate solution to its underwriting problems, especially with regards to investor overlays, including FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. iServe, which originates conventional, government and jumbo loans, recently implemented PriceMyLoan, an automated underwriting and loan pricing tool from Insight Lending Solutions, the same folks who created TOTAL Scorecard for FHA. “PriceMyLoan is the only system that...

Ginnie Mae issuance fell both on a quarterly and year-to-year basis as new data reflect the continuing slowdown in FHA loan production, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. Ginnie Mae issuers combined for $149.8 billion in MBS issuance at midpoint of 2011, down 16.4 percent from the same period last year, and down 10.5 percent on a quarterly basis as MBS production dropped to $70.7 billion in the second quarter from $79.1 billion in the previous quarter. The top issuers accounted for 94.3 percent of Ginnie Mae’s total MBS output for the first six months. Of that share, 77.4 percent belonged to...

The Obama administration is requiring FHA to participate in special program that extends forbearance periods for unemployed homeowners from four to 12 months to help them avoid foreclosure while seeking re-employment. The current unemployment forbearance programs have mandatory periods that are inadequate for most unemployed borrowers, said Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. Servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable Program may also be directed to extend the minimum forbearance period to 12 months wherever possible under regulatory or investor guidelines, Donovan added. Specifically...

Ginnie Mae has revised guidance for determining whether a loan is eligible for its mortgage-backed securities program. According to APM 11-12, effective for all securities with an issue date of June 1, and forward, all loans pooled in Ginnie Mae single-family securities must meet certain criteria. Only loans backing bond consolidation pools are exempt from the revised guidance. Beginning June 1, all loans underlying Ginnie Mae issuances must not be more than one month overdue and unpaid on the pooled mortgages. For example, if a Ginnie Mae MBS issued on Jan. 1 had a pooling date of Dec. 28, the loan must be paid through November in order to be...