The Treasury Department announced that, beginning this month, it is withholding financial incentives for three top mortgage servicers, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo Bank, because their performance in the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Program was considered inadequate...

The White House is reportedly considering nominating former banker Raj Date, a top deputy of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau interim head Elizabeth Warren, to be the first formal director of the nascent agency...

Federal banking regulators have the unenviable task of harmonizing two mortgage disclosure documents – one under the Truth in Lending Act and one under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act – for consumers who generally won’t read them and don’t fully understand them when they do. And mortgage lenders have the same kinds of stubborn obstacles to overcome if they’re going to be able to more effectively design and successfully market products consumers will respond…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may have been more intensively involved in the 50-state servicer settlement discussions than it has publicly let on, and has tried to keep at least some of its contact with the state attorneys general secret, emails from several state agencies seem to suggest...

Ginnie Mae has raised the servicing fee compensation for its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) program. Currently issuers receive either a flat 6-to-75 basis points monthly servicing fee or a 25-75 bps servicing fee based on a portion of the mortgage interest rate. Effective for HMBS with an issue date on or after July 1, 2011, issuers must select a servicing fee margin of at least 36 bps and not exceeding ...

Wells Fargo, the biggest originator of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, is exiting the reverse mortgage market after 20 years due to the unpredictability of property values. The departure of the San Francisco-based lender is another major blow to the wobbly HECM market already weakened by plummeting home prices. In February, Bank of America, the second largest HECM producer, announced it was quitting the reverse mortgage market to focus on other lines of business. The two institutions showed a combined ... [includes one data chart and one graph]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is increasing its focus on tighter underwriting with actions against pregnancy discrimination in home mortgages. The department recently charged Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., PNC Mortgage and others for allegedly refusing to provide mortgage insurance on a Pennsylvania loan unless the borrower returned to work from maternity leave. The FHA requires approved lenders to review a borrower’s income to determine his or her ability to repay the mortgage. However, lenders are prohibited from inquiring about future maternity leave. According to HUD’s complaint, MGIC notified ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is finalizing proposed guidelines streamlining reporting requirements for small FHA-approved lenders. Under the proposed guidelines, federally supervised, FHA-approved lenders with under $500 million in total assets would have alternative requirements for reporting their financial condition. FHA lenders are currently required to submit audited financial statements as a condition for FHA lender approval or renewal. In lieu of an audited financial statement, the proposed rule would require smaller supervised lenders to submit a copy of the unaudited regulatory report they provide ...

A proposed rule that would allow lenders in the federal Farm Credit System to participate in the FHA mortgage insurance programs is being closely scrutinized at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The measure is one of several regulatory actions taken by HUD in response to President Obama’s directive in January calling for a government-wide review of rules and regulations. The review is aimed at weeding out rules that are outdated, unnecessary, excessively burdensome, and redundant or in conflict with other federal rules. Twenty rules, including the proposed FHA approval for FCS lenders, are now being streamlined or rewritten to ease the regulatory burdens of small businesses and spur economic growth. The proposed changes build ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has quietly announced preparations for the termination of FHA HOPE for Homeowners, a program that promised more than it could deliver. In a mortgagee letter, HUD laid out instructions on how to process cases during the program’s phase-out period. Launched in September 2008 to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure, the H4H program will end on Sept. 30, 2011. July 29 is the last day to obtain a new H4H case number for lenders seeking to refinance borrowers into H4H loans after this date, while July 16 is the deadline ...