Cancelled Furlough Days. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has reduced the number of furlough days from seven to five days due to progress made in achieving the $69.6 million spending cuts mandated by sequestration. In this regard, previously scheduled furlough days of Aug. 16 and Aug. 30 are cancelled. As the end of FY 2013 approaches, HUD is making significant progress towards reaching its sequestration target, without needing additional furlough days, said Deputy Press Secretary George Gonzalez of HUD’s Office of Public Affairs. Government-wide automatic spending cuts became effective ...

Recent supervisory efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have focused on “sloppy” servicing transfers and other loss mitigation issues. In a “supervisory highlights” review published this week, the CFPB said that between November 2012 and June 2013, it discovered several issues with servicing transfers that can cause borrowers to miss payments, delay important processes or affect the good standing of a borrower’s mortgage. The CFPB said its examiners found noncompliance with ...

From the start of the Home Affordable Modification Program through the end of 2012, mortgages serviced for the government-sponsored enterprises accounted for the largest share of HAMP Activity. However, beginning this year, mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed securities and loans in portfolio have overtaken GSE mortgages in terms of total HAMP activity. As of the end of the second quarter of 2013, non-agency mortgages accounted for 51.2 percent of the 1.21 million ... [Includes one data chart]

Servicers last week rejected offers from Richmond, CA to purchase 624 mortgages located in the city. Richmond now plans to seize the mortgages via eminent domain but has yet to make the move and faces significant opposition from mortgage industry participants. The five servicers participating in the $25 billion national servicing settlement have provided borrowers with $51.33 billion in gross relief through the end of the second quarter of 2013, according to the settlement’s monitor ... [Includes five briefs]

Additional mortgage servicing rulemaking and perhaps even enforcement actions from the CFPB might be inevitable, now that the bureau has issued a report detailing a number of mortgage servicing problems at banks and nonbanks. “Our examinations of banks and nonbanks allow us to correct problems before more consumers are affected,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The bureau’s new report, issued last week, “highlights both the mortgage servicing problems throughout the industry and the challenges of making sure that nonbanks are...

With implementation of the CFPB’s ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule just a few months away, federal regulators are scheduled to meet in Washington, DC, later this week to discuss – and possibly vote on – a new version of a qualified residential mortgage/ risk retention proposal. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors is scheduled to meet in open session at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, for renewed formal consideration of a QRM/credit risk retention proposal as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and...

The CFPB recently released a second update to its exam procedures associated with the new mortgage regulations issued in January 2013, with the intent of providing guidance to financial institutions and mortgage companies on what the bureau will be eyeballing as the rules become effective. The updates cover the ability-to-repay rule and qualified mortgages, high-cost mortgages, and appraisals for higher-priced mortgage loans, as well as new amendments related to the escrow rule. With this latest iteration, the exam procedures now...

Earlier this month, the CFPB put out an updated small entity compliance guide for the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, incorporating clarifications and amendments to the rules issued on May 29, 2013, and July 10, 2013. The updated guide includes a handful of new sections, one of which goes into some detail about the exemptions that were added by the June 2013 concurrent final rule for certain creditors and loan programs, such as designated community development organizations, certain nonprofit organizations, and...

The CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule and its qualified mortgage standard are getting closer every day, and best practices may provide the surest path to compliance. First off, if you haven’t started, start now. “There’s a lot to do, there’s a lot to know, and there’s a lot to sort out. So, go ahead and get started. It’s already August, and January will be here before we know it,” Ginger Moore, the compliance officer at PrimeLending, a top-25 mortgage originator based in Dallas, TX, told participants during a recent Inside Mortgage...

Tammy Butler, the director of fair lending and compliance for Optimal Blue, a leading pricing engine, said she’s been hearing from one attorney and industry consultant after another that the time of mortgage lenders naming their fees just to re‐name profit is not going to go over well with the CFPB. “In fact, those who have been through the exams or been fined have learned the hard way that complete transparency to the consumer is a must,” Butler said.For instance, Butler has heard some lenders plan on lumping a...