Although there hasn’t been a lot of good news on PHH of late, one analyst we spoke with noted a positive: “They still have plenty of cash on their books…”
The flow of home loans covered by private mortgage insurance into new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities fell by 11.5 percent during the first quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. That decline mirrored the 11.6 percent drop in purchase-mortgage securitization from the fourth quarter by the two government-sponsored enterprises. A slight uptick in refinance activity partly offset the slide in purchase-mortgage business. Private MIs do...[Includes two data tables]
The mortgage industry found some justification to hope for a return to a more traditional interpretation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took some judicial fire during oral arguments early this week in its dispute with PHH Corp. over the company’s captive mortgage reinsurance activity. The crux of the dispute is the bureau’s assertion that PHH violated RESPA and harmed consumers through a mortgage insurance kickback scheme tied to a captive MI company. Virtually all the major mortgage lenders used similar captive reinsurance entities prior to the financial collapse. In the run-up to this week’s oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the justices seemed...
Mortgage originators, securitizers and investors are no closer to getting any additional formal guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when it comes to industry compliance with the agency’s controversial integrated disclosure rule. The rule, which took effect Oct. 3, 2015, combines the consumer disclosures required under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. During a hearing late last week before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, CFPB Director Richard Cordray and Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, briefly referenced...
Over the past year, The Blackstone Group has been aggressively expanding into many facets of the mortgage business and is now ready to make what might be considered a bold move: investing and originating in residential loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage test. But just how big might Blackstone get? That’s hard to say at this point. A source inside the company, who spoke under the condition his name not be used, confirmed...
Wells Fargo last week reached an agreement to pay $1.2 billion to the federal government to resolve certification and reporting violations in connection with FHA-insured loans. The settlement is the largest recovery for loan-origination violations in FHA history, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. The April 8 court filing details an agreement in principle, which Wells Fargo announced in February, that resolves not only a pending lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, but also a number of potential claims dating as far back as 15 years in some cases, according to a statement issued by Wells Fargo. According to the settlement, Wells Fargo “admitted...
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