The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are likely to pursue more mortgage-related lawsuits due to pressure from Congress, according to former federal attorneys. “The fact that the attorney general now speaks of financial fraud enforcement as one of the top three priorities of the Department of Justice, just after terrorism and keeping people safe in their communities, trickles down to the lowest levels of the department and elsewhere in terms of the dedication of resources, the coordination, the training, the case referrals,” said Andrew Schilling, a partner at the law firm of BuckleySandler and a former chief of the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The latest pressure came...
Fiscal 2012 turned out to be a stellar year for the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program with $119.23 billion in total loan volume, thanks largely to surging streamlined VA refinancing as well as conversions from FHA and conventional loans. A total of 539,884 new single-family mortgage loans with a VA guaranty were originated in 2012, up 59.12 percent from the prior fiscal year, according to the latest VA data. VA originations have been trending upward since 2010, when the agency reported $65.05 billion in new originations. Volume was largely driven...
Look for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee under a Democrat majority to focus over the next two years on assuring a smooth implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, stabilizing the housing market and building a “bipartisan consensus” on housing finance reform, according to the committee’s chairman. “From protecting consumers and taxpayers from Wall Street abuses, to providing the Federal Housing Administration with additional tools to manage its finances while continuing to serve American families, I believe we can find common ground,” said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, chairman. The committee will continue...
The planned relocation later this year of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s headquarters in downtown Washington, DC – the third move in the past six years – will be the last for a while as the group’s head says it has recovered its balance following a massive staff downsizing at the advent of the economic downturn. On Sept. 30, executives and staff at the Mortgage Bankers Association will vacate their current rented offices across three floors at 1717 Rhode Island Ave. NW, to occupy a slightly smaller single-floor rental office space three blocks away at 1919 M St, NW. MBA President and CEO David Stevens said...
In 2010 and 2011, the government-sponsored enterprises purchased billions of dollars of delinquent mortgages out of mortgage-backed securities trusts to save money. Now it appears that Fannie Mae, followed by Freddie Mac, will test the waters to see how much they can get for their nonperforming loans in the secondary market. Investment bankers and loan sale advisors familiar with the matter told Inside Mortgage Finance that Fannie could come to market with a multi-million package of residential NPLs before the end of the first quarter. Fannie, two sources confirmed, has hired...
A year ago mortgage servicers – especially small- to medium-sized shops – breathed a collective sigh of relief after the Federal Housing Finance Agency shelved a proposal to radically alter servicing compensation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. The agency had toyed with the idea of replacing the 25 basis point minimum fee with a flat “fee for service” payment, perhaps as low as $10 per month for performing loans. But there are new concerns that the “fee for service” (FFS) model could be revisited if and when the agency gets a new permanent director. Executives at servicing advisory and investment banking firms say...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may run into budget pressures as it transitions from its start-up and rulemaking period to supervision and enforcement, all while policymakers struggle with spending restraints and Congressional Republicans continue to sharpen their CFPB axes in light of the Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board ruling, according to an industry consultant. If the bureau does need more funding, it might find its influence unexpectedly limited. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Jan. 25 decision in Canning raises...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to wrangle with mortgage sellers over repurchase requests during the fourth quarter of 2012, mostly over loans originated five years earlier, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of disclosures by the two government-sponsored enterprises. As the year ended, the GSEs had a whopping $20.11 billion in pending and disputed buyback requests with lenders, up 9.5 percent from the end of the third quarter. While Freddie actually managed to whittle down its stack of unresolved cases by 1.1 percent, the pile grew 10.5 percent higher at Fannie. And 52.1 percent of these disputes involved loans securitized in 2007. The dollar volume of loan repurchases and indemnifications edged...[Includes one data chart]
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