Federal and state scrutiny of lender-placed insurance has turned into a compliance nightmare for lender/servicers in recent years as legal scrutiny of industry practices intensified, resulting in regulatory actions and lawsuits, according to a new analysis by BuckleySandler. The LPI industry and its practices came under close scrutiny following the mortgage crisis and has continued ever since. It began with the filing of a host of lawsuits by the plaintiffs’ bar across the...

Freddie Mac wants to help more borrowers sustain homeownership through counseling. Last week, the GSE invested in a modernized platform to streamline the process and partnered with Hope Loan Port, a nonprofit aimed at sustaining homeownership through its technology solutions. The new platform, available now, will automate several key processes, including collecting, analyzing and reporting client data, assessing client readiness to buy a home, and referring clients who are ready for successful homeownership to lenders, seamlessly. A dedicated software-as-a-service (SaaS) based platform highlights the modernization initiative and will provide the participating Borrower Help Centers with the tools to work with consumers, connect with lenders and share sensitive data securely.

Over the past two years, PHH Corp. has lost $64 million on its mortgage business and now that Merrill Lynch has given notice that it wants to end some of its private-label contracts with PHH Mortgage, the nonbank’s future is beginning to look cloudier. Moreover, analysts and investors who follow the company wonder whether PHH’s private-label model – the bread and butter of its origination business – is fixable in the modern era of mortgage banking. Meanwhile, all of this is happening at a time when management hopes to sell the company, or at least field offers for some of its key assets, including a $226 billion servicing portfolio. The bad news for PHH started...

Many non-agency MBS investors insist that they aren’t comfortable with the liability posed by TRID…

Servicers must round up eligible customers and present offers by October 15 of this year.

Some 59.6 percent of new issuance in the first quarter consisted of re-securitizations and deals backed by seasoned re-performing and nonperforming loans...

Trouble ahead for CFPB chief Richard Cordray? The judges asked: “What independent agencies now or historically have been headed by a single person…”

Meanwhile, BofA’s “legacy assets and servicing” unit lost $40 million in the first quarter of 2016.

Wells reported mortgage banking non-interest income of $1.6 billion for the first quarter, a $62 million decline from the prior period.

Private mortgage insurance firms adjusted their pricing in early 2016…