The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general urged the agency to revise regulations to avoid the possibility of another multi-billion dollar hit to the FHA insurance fund due to servicers missing their foreclosure or conveyance deadlines. According to a recent IG audit report, HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. In particular, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding costs incurred after the deadlines for foreclosure or conveyance had lapsed, the report said. Because of these exorbitant claims payments, the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund became...
A federal court ruling that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional raises questions that similarly-structured agencies such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency could also be challenged. A DC Circuit Court judge in the PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case ruled that the CFPB’s single-director structure was not constitutional because it lacked a multi-member board of directors and its sole director cannot be fired without cause. In court, lawyers from the CFPB called...
A number of mortgage trade groups this week called upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to extend its current “diagnostic” approach to enforcing the agency’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule. The groups were responding to the CFPB’s request for public comments on its proposed TRID clarifying rulemaking, which was issued at the end of July. It’s...
Last week’s closely-watched appeals court ruling in the wrangling between PHH Mortgage and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act is being widely viewed by many as a clipping of the agency’s wings. But expectations about just how restrained the CFPB will be in enforcement actions going forward vary from compliance attorney to compliance attorney. Lawyers with the Stinson Leonard Street law firm pointed out that the director still holds all of the same enforcement power as before, despite the court’s conclusion that the bureau’s leadership structure, with a sole, independent director who can only be removed for cause, is unconstitutional. “For example, the CFPB administrative appeals process is...
According to investment bankers, there continues to be plenty of talk about mergers and acquisitions in the mortgage industry, but deals just aren’t getting done for the simple reason that the primary targets – midsized nonbanks – are posting strong profits and want top dollar for their franchises. “We’re still having conversations with potential buyers,” said Chuck Klein, managing partner with Mortgage Banking Solutions, Austin, TX. “But there continues to be a wide gap between the bid and the asking price.” Klein also noted...
Nonbank mortgage servicers expanded their footprint in agency mortgage servicing rights during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Overall, there were $6.062 trillion of single-family mortgages outstanding tied to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities at the end of September. (The table below excludes two significant categories: loans subserviced on behalf of the agencies and some seasoned loans for which no servicer is disclosed. This mostly affects the Fannie data.) The September figure was...[Includes three data tables]
Back in August, Incenter Mortgage Advisors auctioned off one of the largest bulk packages of Ginnie Mae servicing rights in quite some time: An $8.87 billion pool of receivables…
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