The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a bit of a surprise move, is pressing the CFPB, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and members of Congress for changes to the Secure and Fair Enforcement of Licensing Act and other regulations that would provide uniform testing standards for all mortgage loan officers. The development is somewhat unexpected in that the trade group is calling for regulators and lawmakers to increase the compliance load for its members. Under the SAFE Act, there are two regimes for loan officers. Loan officers who work for nonbank lenders have to be licensed. That includes testing, pre-licensing and continuing education requirements, as well as extensive criminal and financial background reviews by state regulators. Additionally, they also must ...

Another CFPB Official Heads for the Private Sector. CFPB Enforcement Attorney Manuel Alvarez has been hired away by Affirm, a young financial services company based in San Francisco, to be its first chief compliance officer and general counsel. In his new role at Affirm, Alvarez will oversee and manage the company’s regulatory compliance program and related actives to prevent illegal, unfair or deceptive conduct. He will also take charge of the firm’s working relationships with regulators and Affirm’s service providers. “Consumers often don’t understand the fees or interest they pay on a revolving account. That has to change,” said Alvarez. “Affirm’s commitment to delivering honest and transparent financial products totally aligns with my long-standing commitment to consumer protection.” Alvarez was ...

FHA violations were related to lender approval, loan origination and mortgage servicing practices.

The seller, which IMA would not identify, hopes to close the sale by Sept. 30. Just over 5,050 loans are in portfolio, which is top heavy in California.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac actually withdrew $881.5 million of buyback demands, more than lenders repurchased during the first quarter.

A solid increase in non-agency commercial MBS issuance during the second quarter of 2014 provided most of the lift in new income-property securitizations, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. A total of $36.69 billion of commercial mortgages were securitized during the second quarter, up 16.1 percent from the first three months of the year. At the midway point in 2014, new CMBS issuance remained 24.7 percent behind the heady levels recorded over the same period last year, which ended up being the market’s highest point since the financial crisis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae saw...[Includes two data charts]

At the midway point this year, agency multifamily issuance was off 36.9 percent from the first half of 2013, and production was essentially flat in the second quarter.

The immediate future is looking mostly bright for publicly-traded real estate investment trusts that toil in the commercial real estate sector – that is, as long as origination volumes remain healthy. Several high-profile commercial REITs – including Starwood Property Trust, Colony Financial and Ladder Capital – do not report second quarter results until next week, but hopes are high that earnings will be mostly positive. One commercial REIT that did report this week was...

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday ordered Bank of America to pay a $1.27 billion penalty over mortgage fraud related to Countrywide Financial’s “Hustle” program, a little more than half of what the government had said the bank should pay, while the bank and Department of Justice discuss a potential MBS fraud settlement. Last October, the DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission successfully proved in court that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost some $850 million from thousands of loans acquired through Countrywide’s “high-speed swim lane” program – known as HSSL or “Hustle.” The loan program ran...

Close compliance with the mortgage servicing rules promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will continue to be a critical concern for servicers this year. Analysts at DBRS anticipate intensified scrutiny from the CFPB and a higher likelihood of fines and lawsuits from noncompliance and even technical errors. “DBRS believes that the issuance of the mortgage servicing rules has brought much-needed reform to the servicing industry,” the analysts said in a new report. It was...