The CFPB has proposed clarifying and technical amendments to its Jan. 10, 2013, final mortgage escrow account rule, which lengthens the time for which a mandatory escrow account established for a higher-priced mortgage loan (HPML) must be maintained. The rule also established an exemption from the escrow requirement for certain lenders that operate predominantly in rural or underserved areas. The proposed amendments clarify the determination method for the rural and underserved designations and keep in place certain...
Banking regulators acknowledged problems with the foreclosure reviews conducted by the nation's megabanks and have agreed to evaluate the use of independent consultants in regulatory actions.
Expect quality control to be the single most critical component at the top of a long list of requirements for prospective lenders seeking to do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to agency officials and experts during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week. The two government-sponsored enterprises are ready, willing and able to do business with new seller/servicer partners, if they are prepared to demonstrate, in a transparent and painstaking way, they are an opportunity to Fannie or Freddie and not a risk, National Union Mortgage President and CEO Bill Cosgrove told webinar attendees. Its really all about quality control. Every area of your organization has to be...
Issuance of non-agency MBS quadrupled in the first quarter, according to new figures compiled by Inside MBS & ABS. Firms selling securities include Ocwen and Nationstar.
It stands to reason that with non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security issuance reviving to some degree, prices paid in the secondary market for jumbo whole loans are rising. Traders and jumbo consultants who play in the sector tell Inside Nonconforming Markets that prices for quality product are now above par, at 103. As recently as last fall, prices were in the 101 and 102 range, depending on the lender and the underlying collateral. The market for whole loans is alive and well for ...
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hasnt marked up a bill in more than a year, but Democrats and Republicans on the panel pushed this week to begin the process of reforming the government-sponsored enterprises. I think the time is right to address this issue and move it forward, Sen. Jon Tester, D-MT, said this week at a hearing by the committee. I think there are folks on both sides of the aisle that want to quit playing with this like a political football and ...
California Capital Real Estate Advisers of Pasadena, CA, could quadruple its hard-money production volume this year, according to Mark Mozilo, a principal in the firm. The rehab business is going crazy here, Mozilo said. He estimated that 80 percent of CALCAPs business is in the rehabilitation category. Theres a lot of fix-it-up and flip it activity, he said. Although the quadruple estimate sounds impressive, the firms overall production volume is tiny compared to conventional lenders ...
The policy mix is very much weighted on the side of not lending, or at least not underwriting anything but a prime loan, according to Chris Whalen, an executive vice president and managing director at Carrington Investment Services. Whalen and others spoke last week at a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. The industry analysts said actions by federal regulators are limiting issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Tom Zimmerman, a managing director at UBS, said ...