Ocwen Financial caught a potentially big break last week when the judge overseeing its dispute with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau granted its request to invite the Department of Justice to weigh in. “There are at least two clear reasons to invite the Attorney General to participate here,” the company told Judge Kenneth Marra, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. First, it noted, district courts are required to notify the attorney general of a constitutional challenge in any action in which the U.S. government is not a party. Second, the U.S. attorney general recently filed...
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said it will be at least two years until Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will adopt alternative credit scoring models. A number of groups have been pushing the government-sponsored enterprises to look beyond the FICO score, and Fannie and Freddie have been studying the issue. But Watt said any major change will have to wait until the GSEs have completed the complex single-security project. “Based on the overwhelming feedback we have received from the industry, it is...
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its housing-finance reform proposal would likely have little impact on consumer mortgage costs. Whether costs to consumers are modestly higher or lower will depend on how the different components suggested for reform are determined through the political process, according to the MBA. “While the precise impact on consumer costs from true housing-finance reform may be difficult to gauge, we know...
Purchase mortgages are getting to be a tougher sell as many potential homebuyers say high prices make it a lousy time to buy a house, and sellers are getting less enthusiastic as well. A Fannie Mae survey found that the share of people surveyed who said it was a bad time to buy reached a high of 57 percent in July, while the share who said it was a good time to buy hit a low, 34 percent. The government-sponsored enterprise has been conducting the survey since 2011. “It’s...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a lower court decision and deepened a split among the circuit courts on whether certain employees of mortgage companies qualify for overtime pay. Given the conflicting circuit court opinions, attorneys are...
It’s safe to say that CFPB Director Richard Cordray has been one of the most controversial financial regulators to work in Washington, D.C. for quite some time...
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