The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan has entered into an agreement with the law firm of Steven J. Baum, one of the largest volume mortgage foreclosure firms in New York state, that requires the firm to pay $2 million to Uncle Sam and to extensively change its mortgage foreclosure practices. The agreement resolves an investigation into Baum’s mortgage foreclosure-related practices, specifically whether the firm, on behalf of its lender clients, filed misleading pleadings, affidavits and mortgage assignments in state and federal courts in New York.

President Obama’s nominee to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau passed his first Congressional gauntlet last week, gaining the approval of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, in spite of unanimous opposition from Republicans on the committee, who are more opposed to the CFPB than they are about whoever is nominated to run it. Late last week, the committee voted to send the nomination of Richard Cordray, currently the head of the agency’s enforcement division, to the full Senate on a straight party line vote 12-10. “Today’s Banking Committee vote on Richard Cordray is an important step forward for American consumers,” said Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs a director, and Mr. Cordray has proven he is qualified for the job. He should be confirmed by the full Senate as soon as possible.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed a portal that companies can use to view and respond to entries in the new complaint database, Inside Regulatory Strategies has learned. “The company portal serves as the interface between the CFPB and financial companies, enabling companies to view and respond to complaints submitted by consumers,” the bureau said in a presentation to industry representatives recently. “Using the portal, companies should provide an explanation of the resolution and the actions taken in the consumer’s situation, select a resolution status for the complaint and attach relevant documents, if necessary.” The CFPB also maintains a consumer portal so complainants can check the status of their cases. Here’s an overview of the complaint process: A consumer files a complaint, then the CFPB routes the complaint to the company.

One of the emerging supervisory issues for state-regulated mortgage lenders is whether there should be some sort of formal ombudsman office or function within the Multistate Mortgage Committee or at least perhaps an informal “feedback loop” in the context of a multistate examination, according to lender representatives, industry attorneys and state officials themselves. “Right now, there is no formal or even informal feedback loop for licensed companies who are dealing with MMC issues to go back to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors or American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators to talk about issues in general,” explained Donald Lampe, partner and head of the financial services regulatory and compliance practice at Dykema.

After 11 months of negotiations, the odds that the multistate attorneys general talks with most of the nation’s top mortgage servicers will yield any substantive, long-term fruit seem to shrink daily, as officials from two states – including one of the biggest – have decided to bail, in lieu of possible independent litigation. “I have lost confidence that the banks will bring to the table an agreement that properly holds them accountable for wrongful foreclosures,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, one of two state AGs to withdraw from the negotiations last week, along with California AG Kamala Harris. “Because our office for some time has anticipated that result, we have begun preparing for litigation.

California. The state amended a number of its mortgage loan originator licensing provisions under the California Finance Lenders Law last week, including one amendment that permits applicants who have an expunged or pardoned felony conviction to obtain a license. The underlying crime, facts or circumstances can be considered when determining whether to issue a license. Another amendment permits a person exempt from the California Finance Lenders Law to register with the Commissioner of Corporations so as to sponsor one or more individuals required to be licensed under the SAFE Act if specific requirements are met.

Federal Housing Finance Agency. OIG Finds Room for Improvement. The FHFA recognizes how important it is to oversee Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s default-related legal services, but it needs to improve its capacity to identify new and emerging areas of risk, according to a new report released by the agency’s Office of Inspector General. Additionally, “FHFA does not have a continuous supervision plan or detailed examination guidance to govern its oversight of Fannie’s Retained Attorney Network, and it had not accomplished any targeted examinations of the RAN until it initiated a special review in late 2010, which has not yet been published,” the OIG said. Moreover, “FHFA also has not developed formal policies to address poor performance by law firms that have relationships – either directly through contract or through its loan servicers – with both enterprises to ensure that information is shared.”

Mortgage banking activity was one bright spot in an otherwise lackluster earnings period, according to a third quarter review by analysts at FBR Capital Markets. “Activity was up 35 percent from 2Q11 as we saw lower interest rates drive another refinance boom, whereby refinances accounted for almost 80 percent of all originations,” FBR said. The analysts expect originations and gain-on-sale margins to be up significantly from 2Q11 due to the persistent decline of mortgage rates through the quarter. “We continue to recommend investors stick with banks that have sizable mortgage banking operations because refinance levels should stay elevated from low interest rates, and some large players have exited the business, which should bode well for gain-on-sale margins,” the FBR team said.

New issuance of mortgage- and asset-backed securities faltered in the third quarter, although production levels were gaining strength in September. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals that $330.12 billion of ABS and residential MBS were issued during the third quarter, a decline of 6.3 percent from the previous three-month period. The surprisingly tepid increase in residential MBS issuance was not nearly enough to offset a substantial drop in non-mortgage ABS activity. Non-mortgage ABS issuance fell 43.4 percent from the second to the third quarter, sinking to $24.84 billion and reversing the very...(Includes one data chart)