Borrower participants in the CFPB’s eClosing pilot project scored noticeably higher on three key metrics – efficiency, empowerment and understanding – the bureau announced during a public forum on the project last week. The CFPB surveyed consumers about their perceptions of how efficient the overall process was. This included their perceptions about delays, errors in the documents, and the time between important steps. The study found a 17 percent positive difference in scores for borrowers using eClosings compared to borrowers using paper documents. The CFPB also asked consumers how empowered they felt after the process. The survey asked consumers to respond to statements such as, “I felt I had control over the closing process” or “I felt empowered to play an active ...

So-called marketing service agreements between lenders and real estate service providers may be going the way of the dodo bird after two top mortgage lenders decided in recent days to pull the plug on such business arrangement, apparently in the face of scrutiny from the CFPB. Prospect Mortgage, a top-30 ranked lender, was the first to officially deep-six its MSAs, ostensibly as a precautionary measure, the company said. The lender said it feared that it could eventually run afoul of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Then Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said it too was withdrawing from certain business arrangements where MSAs are involved with its mortgage unit, citing what it called “increasing uncertainty surrounding regulatory oversight ...

A number of lenders, including Wells Fargo, offer jumbos that allow for downpayments of about 10 percent.

Walter, the parent of Green Tree Servicing, also marked up the fair value of its servicing portfolio by $59.3 million.

In general, most nonbanks exited the second lien arena in the wake of the financial crisis.

In trading Monday, investors were not treating AAMC’s stock kindly.

Will the industry see a flood of nonbanks into the second lien market?

HUD Proposes to Clarify Participation of Religious Organizations in Agency Programs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a rule that would amend current rules regarding equal participation of faith-based organizations in HUD programs. The amendments implement a 2010 presidential directive, which clarified that religious providers may compete for federal funding without losing their religious identity. The directive also provided protections for program beneficiaries, including a referral process for those opposed to religious groups that operate federally funded programs. The public has 60 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register to comment on the proposed changes. NMI Holdings Turn Profitable. NMI Holdings, parent company of National Mortgage Insurance, appears to be turning the corner toward profitability as the changes implemented by ...

A Miami FHA lender and two of his associates plead guilty to a mortgage fraud scheme that cost the FHA approximately $64 million in losses. Hector Hernandez, owner of Great Country Mortgage Bankers and a real estate developer, and his business partner Aleida Fontao each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Olga Hernandez, an underwriter for Great Country, confessed to falsifying information in borrowers’ loan applications to make them appear qualified. According to the DOJ, Great Country was a direct endorsement lender that made loans to first-time homebuyers and borrowers with imperfect credit and low credit cores. Hernandez and Fontao admitted to pressuring their loan officers to approve and close loans based on fraudulent income and employment information. Borrower credit histories were altered to make them look good. The senior underwriter admitted to providing false information to her co-workers and endorsing borrowers’ applications despite knowing that they did not qualify for the loans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service has delayed the implementation of the revised document upload process for guaranteed single-family home loans. The changes to the document-uploading component in the RHS Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS) will be implemented on Aug. 26, not Aug. 12 as initially planned, to ease current restrictions on RHS’ document upload. However, an application must first be established before uploading any document into GUS. This can be done by completing the first three pages of a GUS application. Previously, users were not allowed to upload documents into GUS until a final submission had successfully processed. In addition, before the changes to the document uploading process, only users with a security designation that included “final submit authority” were allowed to upload documents. The revised system now allows users with a security designation of ...