The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week continued to work on housing-finance reform legislation, with the hope that a bipartisan bill can still be cobbled together in a dysfunctional Congress. As for passage this year, that’s a different matter.
The Treasury Department appears to be in agreement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on objectives for a post-conservatorship housing-finance system, which includes preserving the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and competition in the secondary market.
A deduction included in the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act aimed at small businesses could apply to mortgage banking companies, according to certain industry analysts. The tax law was written to limit the deduction for income from financial services activities, but there’s enough ambiguity at the moment for some accounting firms to see a way for lenders to take the deduction.
PIMCO is shaking up its mortgage banking affiliate, First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., Tysons Corner, VA, paving the way for the departure of long-time company president and CEO Andrew Peters, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned.
There could be substantial revisions to some major mortgage-related rulemakings from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the direction of Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, such as the ability-to-repay rule and the mortgage servicing rules.
While the House Financial Services Committee was busy last week passing a handful of mortgage-related bills, the full House passed legislation that would eliminate additional Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements for smaller banks and credit unions as well as nonbanks.
Investors are increasingly interested in financing mortgage servicing rights and investing in ex-cess servicing spread strips, according to the law firm of Hunton & Williams. The firm helped a number of companies structure MSR financing transactions last year.
The Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Land Title Association have joined forces to produce a model piece of legislation to help standardize the process of online notarizations.
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