The mortgage lending industry won a couple of key legal challenges recently, including an unusual claim brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. In Cabrera v. Countrywide Financial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently dismissed, without prejudice, most of the complaint brought by two borrowers who accused the mortgage lender of engaging in fraudulent loan practices in violation of the RICO Act. In July 2007, Manuel Cabrera received...

Although mortgage market watchers cautiously expect President Obama and the lame-duck session of the 112th Congress to come up with at least a stop-gap deal to avoid the looming “fiscal cliff” at year’s end, building uncertainty among homeowners and potential borrowers as to whether important mortgage tax deductions will exist in 2013 threatens to thwart housing’s fragile recovery. Unless Congress and the president create and sign new legislation to change existing law before Jan. 1, 2013, taxpayers are poised to be hit with a massive combination of expiring tax breaks, tax hikes and deep, automatic federal spending cuts. A report last week by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that a failure to avoid the cliff would push the economy back into recession with the unemployment rate shooting up to 9.1 percent by next fall. Fitch Ratings warns...

Reportedly dire findings of the annual independent audit of the FHA insurance fund due for release late this week may set off alarms in Congress and calls for reform but not a taxpayer rescue as some FHA critics have suggested, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Recent news reports indicated that the fiscal 2012 actuarial review of the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund will show a negative economic value or capital reserve position, which some say could require the Treasury to bail out the FHA to boost its claims-paying ability. There is speculation that the fund could go from a predicted economic value of positive $9.4 billion in last year’s study to as much as negative $10 billion this year. A deficit should not be...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported a sharp decline in the volume of mortgage repurchases and indemnifications made by lenders during the third quarter, as well as a slowdown in the volume of new buyback demands, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of data reported by the two government-sponsored enterprises in financial reports released last week. During the third quarter, lenders repurchased or otherwise indemnified the GSEs for $4.396 billion of mortgages that had been subject to buyback demands, a decline of 26.0 percent from the second quarter. It was the lowest repurchase volume since the first three months of last year. On a year-to-date basis, repurchases are...[Includes one data chart]

The private mortgage insurance industry is expressing optimism with the positive changes seen lately in the housing market while hoping that Congress or the Obama administration do nothing to impede or spoil the market’s recovery. Industry executives say stabilizing home values, low interest rates, better quality mortgages and a shrinking FHA share of the mortgage market are helping MIs win back market share and write new business. “Everybody is trying to write as much business as they can to regain share,” said Michael Zimmerman, senior vice president for investor relations at Mortgage Guarany Insurance Corp. New insurance written is...

Private mortgage insurers posted an impressive 26.5 percent increase in new insurance written during the third quarter of 2012, but four of the industry’s six active firms are gradually taking market share away from their rivals. Private MIs insured $51.76 billion in new mortgage originations during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis, making it the strongest quarter for the beleaguered industry since the second quarter of 2008. FHA and VA lending grew at a much slower pace, climbing just 2.1 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively, during the third quarter. The result was...[Includes two data charts]

Dodd-Frank Repeal? No. Corrections? Maybe. There will be no repeal of 2010’s landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as a result of President Barack Obama’s re-election and the Democratic Party’s retention of control of the U.S. Senate, according to a post-election briefing by Wolters Kluwer. “However, a bipartisan Dodd-Frank Act corrections bill is very likely to pass in the 113th Congress that will convene in January 2013,” the firm continued, citing recent remarks by Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA...

The CFPB has put out the second iteration of its Supervision and Examination Manual, the guide bureau examiners use in overseeing companies that provide consumer financial products and services. The manual describes how the CFPB supervises and examines these providers and gives its examiners direction on how to determine if companies are complying with consumer financial protection laws. The bureau updated the supervision manual to reflect the renumbering of the consumer financial protection regulations for which the CFPB...

From 2009]2011, the number of college credit card agreements, total number of accounts open at year]end, amount of payments by issuers to the university, and number of new card accounts opened during the year all declined, according to the CFPBfs recently released 2012 Annual Report to Congress on College Credit Card Agreements. FIA Card Services, N.A., a subsidiary of Bank of America Corp., submitted 633 agreements, which represents nearly 80 percent of all agreements in effect during 2011, the report indicates...

The CFPB recently refused to modify or set aside a civil investigative demand (CID) issued to Next Generation in connection with an investigation of the companyfs debt settlement services business. The bureau indicated in its decision and order that the probe was trying to ascertain whether companies engaged in unlawful acts or practices in the advertising, marketing or sale of debt settlement services. The CID, which the CFPB issued on Aug. 3, 2012, instructed Next Generation to appear for an investigational...