Ginnie Mae has held up for several weeks an $8 billion sale of servicing rights from Bank of America to a nonbank because of missing documents on government-backed mortgages. Ted Tozer, president of the agency, confirmed the delay in approvals to Inside FHA Lending, but declined to name the nonbank on the buy-side of the transaction. However, sources familiar with the deal identified the counter-party as PennyMac. BofA and PennyMac would not comment. Once the missing documents are located and placed in the proper files, the deal will move forward, said Tozer. Tozer noted that that in the past the agency did not lose sleep over large MSR transfers because up until three years ago the nation’s megabanks were buyers of MSRs. “We knew they had the financial strength to make the P&I [principal and interest] payments” to the MBS investors, he said. But with nonbank servicers, such as Green Tree, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial as well as PennyMac, rapidly growing their portfolios, the agency is ...
The FHA will allow lenders to suspend foreclosures on properties backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans for up to 60 days to help non-borrowing spouses of deceased HECM borrowers temporarily avoid eviction and, possibly, foreclosure. The announcement of the policy came as a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia considered whether to certify a class-action case filed by four surviving spouses of HECM borrowers last month. The lawsuit alleges that HUD had failed to protect them from being displaced from their homes – the same protection HECM regulations extend to reverse mortgage borrowers. The suit accuses the department of violating the federal Administrative Procedures Act by promulgating contradictory regulations without public comment. Last September, a DC judge found HUD in violation of federal law in a similar case and ordered that the case ...
Wells Fargo has expanded its acceptance of electronic signatures on FHA mortgage-related documents to correspondent lenders – a move that could spur other lenders to consider a similar shift as purchase originations rise. Details of the expansion are available in Wells Fargo current Seller Guide. However, access is restricted to correspondent lenders because the guide contains proprietary information, according to a company spokesman. DocuSign, whose Digitized Transaction Management (DTM) platform is being used by Wells Fargo and other financial services clients, said the expansion follows FHA’s announcement earlier this year of acceptance of e-signatures on all single-family origination and servicing/loss mitigation documents, FHA claims and real estate-owned sales contracts, with the exception of notes. The FHA announcement builds on an ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will launch a new, voluntary pilot project later this year to promote e-closings as a way to reduce or eliminate many of the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process. But officials at FHA and Ginnie Mae were eager to jump on board and reinvigorate similar efforts of their own in this regard, as many government and industry representatives tried to capitalize on a renewed sense that e-mortgages and a greater use of technology can transform the entire origination process – for all stakeholders, not just consumers. “We’re very excited to see the continued advancement of not only the use of technology, but hopefully more effective means of working together as an industry to improve the overall mortgage process,” said FHA’s Patricia McClung, acting director of single family program development, at a public forum ...
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said this week that housing finance reform can no longer be put off, but no more so than for the FHA which continues to play an “outsized role” in the mortgage market as private capital remains on the sidelines. Speaking in New York at an event co-hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Donovan said the Obama administration is squarely behind the legislative proposal by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID. “Despite its imperfections, does this bill represent progress? Absolutely,” said Donovan, seeking to win over housing advocacy groups disenchanted with the bill. “When looking for ways to improve [the bill], let’s not lose sight of its potential. Let’s not forget its importance to the housing market and its future.” The Johnson-Crapo legislative proposal calls for a wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and creation of a ...
Home Loan Servicing Solutions recently completed its first acquisition of Ginnie Mae whole loans through the agency’s early buy-out (EBO) program. The purchase price for the FHA-insured loans was $556.6 million. HLSS acquired the loans from Ocwen with an unpaid principal balance (UPB) of $549.4 million. Ocwen initially acquired the loans through the GNMA EBO program, which allows Ginnie Mae servicers to purchase delinquent loans from applicable loan securitization pools. HLSS financed its purchase by opening a new $600 million mortgage loan facility. It received $472.7 million in proceeds from this facility to help fund its EBO loan purchase from Ocwen. The loans are held as investments in a special purpose entity (SPE). “It is our expectation that since our GNMA EBO loans are insured by the FHA, the cash flows of this SPE will be sufficient to meet all claims of the debt holders,” the company said ...
Fannie Mae Announces Changes in Desktop Underwriter for VA Loans. On April 15, Fannie Mae issued a release note announcing several changes to Desktop Underwriter for VA loans that will take effect during the weekend of May 17, 2014. The DU determination of when a bankruptcy occurred on VA loan case files will be updated. With the May change, bankruptcy information found in publicly accessible segments of the credit report will be used in determining when the bankruptcy occurred. A waiting period requirement will then be applied. The bankruptcy information in the tradeline segment will only be used to determine when the bankruptcy happened if the public records show no such info. However, if the records do reflect a bankruptcy but the date is either blank or invalid, DU will issue a “refer” recommendation. The lender must review the credit report and bankruptcy documentation to ...
The CFPB will work with participants to test many eClosing features, including those that may enable consumer understanding, incentivize early document review and facilitate error detection.
He cited one example where a $40 billion MSR package can be sold to one buyer that agrees to board the servicing files in increments of say $5 billion a month.
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