The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced settlements last week with two mortgage lending-related entities over alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act having to do with affiliates and fees. In one case, HUD alleged that title company Fidelity National Financial Inc., through its subsidiaries, paid fees for the referral of settlement service business in violation of Section 8 of RESPA...

Democrat Sens. Tom Carper (Delaware) and Mark Warner (Virginia), the authors of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s preemption amendment, recently wrote Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, expressing surprise and disappointment at the Treasury’s interpretation of the provision. Earlier in the month, George Madison, the Treasury’s general counsel, wrote to the OCC to comment on the agency’s proposed rule on federal preemption, saying that Dodd-Frank’s preemption provision does not uphold the Barnett standard...

The Justice Department has sued Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage insurance company, and two of its underwriting staffers, accusing them of discriminating against women mortgage loan applicants who were on paid maternity leave. The government’s suit, filed July 5, 2011, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, accuses MGIC of requiring women on paid maternity leave to return to work before the company would insure their mortgages...

On July 6, in Somers v. Deutsche, Oregon state court judge Roderick Boutin from the Fifth Judicial District ruled that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems is the beneficiary of the deed of trust. “[MERS] is identified as the beneficiary,” the judge wrote. “That MERS and its successors, as the named beneficiary, is the nominee of the lender and its successors is not contrary to Oregon law and is consistent with the express terms of the deed of trust made and delivered by the Somers.”..

Nevada. Assembly Bill 77 was recently signed into law, revising a number of provisions governing mortgage lending and the conduct and supervision of related professionals (escrow agents and agencies, mortgage bankers, brokers and agents, etc.), and providers of certain covered services... North Carolina. House Bill 312 was approved, amending the methods for recording a satisfaction of a security instrument with the register of deeds. It also clarifies the requirements for electronically registering plats with the register of deeds, and amends restrictions on access to military discharge documents recorded with the register of deeds. The majority of the bill becomes effective Oct. 1, 2011...

Office of the Comptroller of the CurrencyFederal Deposit Insurance Corp.Federal Reserve Top servicers submit remedial foreclosure plans. Top mortgage servicers Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Ally Financial, U.S. Bank, Sun Trust, OneWest Bank, PNC Bank, MetLife Bank, HSBC Bank, Aurora Bank, EverBank and Sovereign submitted their foreclosure practices remedial plans to the OCC, the FDIC and the Fed last week. However, some of the servicers told Inside Regulatory Strategies their plans were confidential documents and would not disclose them. An OCC official said there are no plans for the agency to release the plans or to summarize their contents...

President Barak Obama, in a concession to his contentious relationship with Congressional Republicans, has decided not to nominate or make any recess appointment of Elizabeth Warren to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, opting instead to select former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for the position...

Most of the top mortgage originators of agency-eligible home loans posted significant declines in MBS issuance during the second quarter, but a handful of firms bucked the current, according to a new ranking and analysis based on the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database. Overall agency MBS production declined 33.8 percent from the first quarter to the second, hitting its lowest three-month volume since the end of 2008. Through the midway point in 2011, single-family mortgage securitization by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae was off ... [includes two data charts]

Proponents of an expanded program to refinance underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages may find a sympathetic ear at the White House, which has talked recently of re-focusing on the struggling housing market, but MBS analysts don’t think the proposal would have a huge impact. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, early this year introduced the Helping Responsible Homeowners Act, which would require the government-sponsored enterprises to go beyond the limits of the existing Home Affordable Refinance Program, which was implemented administratively. Loans refinanced under the Boxer program could not be ...

Witnesses testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week had diverse opinions about the effectiveness of the Dodd-Frank Act to protect investors, but one thing was clear: without the money, the Securities and Exchange Commission will never be able to get anything done. Republicans and Democrats in the committee were not-so-surprisingly at odds over the now one-year-old law. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, urged members of the committee and the witnesses present to “give these provisions a chance to work.” Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, argued that Dodd-Frank “has not ...