The mortgage lending industry told the CFPB that limiting the upfront points and origination fees borrowers pay to the providers of mortgage credit could inadvertently harm the market and the borrowers who are the intended beneficiaries. The American Bankers Association said in a comment letter to the bureau that “the overly stringent Dodd-Frank Act prohibitions that ban borrowers’ options to pay upfront points and origination fees to creditors will greatly damage the availability of financing alternatives for consumers.”...

Representatives of the mortgage lending and financial services industries jointly told federal regulators they strongly support efforts to prevent property “flipping,” but they are also concerned that the regulators’ proposed rule to implement requirements for property appraisals in connection with “higher-risk mortgage” loans might be far too complicated. “[T]he main complexity of the proposed rule relates to the fact that Congress defined higher-risk mortgages based on the spread of the annual percentage rate (APR) over...

Lender and financial services industry representatives, commenting on the CFPB’s recently released five-year strategic plan, called for clear, comprehensive guidance to the industry along with enough time to ensure full compliance, given the sheer volume of all the other rulemakings being promulgated in the wake of the financial crisis. The American Financial Services Association, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Bankers Association said they were pleased that the first goal in the strategic plan is to prevent...

Last week, the CFPB released a report entitled, “The Next Front? Student Loan Servicing and the Cost to Our Men and Women in Uniform,” outlining the unique servicing obstacles reported by U.S. military service members seeking to pay off student loan debt. “Since I began this job almost two years ago, I’ve visited over 40 different military installations – talking to senior leaders, military service providers and thousands of service members and spouses,” said Holly Petraeus, head of the bureau’s Office...

Competing special servicers Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management worked together this week to outbid Nationstar Mortgage to acquire Residential Capital’s mortgage servicing rights and origination platform at a bankruptcy auction. And Berkshire Hathaway won a separate auction for ResCap’s whole-loan portfolio. After approval by the bankruptcy court, Ocwen would handle 86.5 percent of the $374.0 billion ResCap MSRs with Walter acquiring $50.4 billion in Fannie Mae MSRs along with ResCap’s ...

FHA loan originations, driven largely by streamline refinancing, increased 5.3 percent to $60.9 billion in the third quarter of this year, the highest level it has been in almost two years, according to Inside FHA Lending’s latest analysis of FHA data. The third-quarter volume reflected an upward trend that began in the first quarter with nearly $48.5 billion in total FHA single-family production and which later rose to $57.8 billion in the second quarter. The last highest point in FHA production was in the fourth quarter of 2010 when ... (2 charts)

New pool level data issued by Ginnie Mae reveal a rising share of FHA-insured loans that have refinanced with grandfathered mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) in new Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuances, according to analysts. Of particular interest to investors is the share of borrowers with existing FHA-insured home loans who took advantage of an opportunity to refinance on advantageous terms under the FHA Streamline Refinance program, said analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Under the revised rules of the FHA Streamline Refi program, FHA-insured mortgages endorsed before June 1, 2009, were ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is mulling a recommendation by its Inspector General to consider indemnifications, civil fines or remedies under the False Claims Act against an approved California lender for allowing the recording of restrictive covenants that put the FHA insurance fund at risk for losses. The IG audit report also recommended that HUD require the lender, Shea Mortgage of Aliso Viejo, CA, to reimburse the FHA for $1.47 million in claims paid on 11 FHA-insured loans that contained prohibited restrictive covenants. Under HUD rules, any recorded agreement between the ...

A weakened mortgage revenue bond market and the unreliability of its primary and pool credit enhancement structure has prompted the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency to turn to FHA and Ginnie Mae to finance its affordable housing program. Launched in December last year, WHEDA’s $100 million FHA Advantage program is still in its infancy, generating less than $1 million a month. Although marketing has not been aggressive as it should be, Geoff Cooper, WHEDA director of single-family operations, said the housing finance agency will soon announce ...

Legislation that would delay foreclosures on mortgages of certain military servicemembers, retirees and surviving spouses of soldiers and sailors who died on active duty would cost taxpayers more to enact and implement rather than as a revenue raiser, according to Congressional Budget Office. The CBO estimates that enacting S. 3322, the Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2012, would increase direct spending by $16 million over the 2013-2022 period. Implementing it would hike discretionary costs by ...