Meanwhile, sources told Inside Mortgage Finance that the FHFA is looking to extract several billion dollars from Bank of America to settle claims that its Countrywide Financial division sold the GSEs toxic MBS.

According to one servicing advisor, large banks – including Wells Fargo – have been quietly selling excess servicing rights through private securitizations.

One mortgage recruiter noted that job losses in somewhat rural communities can be a big problem for workers. “Sometimes they’re the largest employer in town and there’s nowhere else to go,” he said.

Previously, speculation has ranged from January 1 to June 30. Mortgage bankers told Inside Mortgage Finance that whatever the FHFA decides on an implementation date, it had better do so soon.

The CFPB issued a bulletin and interim final rule last week on three issues related to its mortgage servicing rules, one of which involves home-retention efforts after a borrower dies. According to new CFPB Bulletin 2013-12, starting Jan. 10, 2014, a servicer must have policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure that, upon notification of the death of a borrower, the servicer promptly identifies and facilitates communication with a successor in interest of the deceased borrower with respect to the property that secures...

The CFPB last week ordered Mortgage Master Inc. and Washington Federal to pay $425,000 and $34,000, respectively, in civil penalties for allegedly violating the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which requires certain mortgage lenders to accurately collect and report data about residential mortgages. In its HMDA reviews conducted at the two companies, the bureau said it found their compliance systems were inadequate and that they had severely compromised mortgage lending data. The CFPB said Mortgage Master had significant data...

The CFPB is putting into place a prioritization framework, apportioning examination, investigation and fair lending resources across product types, and it may well prove to be particularly significant for nonbank entities. “A specific charge of the bureau is to attempt to level the playing field between banks and nonbank entities relative to compliance with federal consumer financial laws,” said CFPB Deputy Director Steven Antonakes in a speech before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Advisory Committee on Economic...

More than one in five loans originated today would not satisfy the criteria for the qualified mortgage “safe harbor” legal protections under the ability-to-repay rule promulgated in January by the CFPB, according to an analysis by ComplianceEase, a provider of risk management solutions to the financial services industry. The company’s analysis also found that more than half of such loans – or at least 10 percent of recently originated mortgages – have fees that exceed the new 3 percent points-and-fees threshold. Further, “Loans...

It may be hard to believe, but there are some companies considering early compliance with the CFPB’s mortgage servicing rules which take effect on Jan. 10, 2014. But one top official from the bureau urged taking a cautious approach. Answering some questions about the effective date of the bureau’s mortgage servicing rules during a webinar sponsored last week by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Marta Tanenhaus, senior counsel with the CFPB, reminded participants that “no servicer is required to comply with the rules before Jan...

Subject matter attorneys from the CFPB participated in a webinar sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association last week on the bureau’s mortgage origination rules to try to give industry representatives some detailed responses to a number of frequently asked questions the agency has received in recent months. “One of our key priorities has been to bring increased clarity, certainty and burden relief wherever possible and appropriate to address critical questions that we heard from industry,” said Lisa Applegate, the...