If mortgage lending profitability was directly correlated to an ability to respond satisfactorily to borrower complaints, a lot of mortgage bankers might be looking for a new line of work. In 768 cases (46.7 percent) initially tracked by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, mortgage lenders reported they closed a consumer complaint without providing any relief whatsoever, according to the bureau’s first semi-annual report to Congress, submitted to the House Financial Services Committee last week. Credit card gripes, on the other hand, were closed without any reported relief in 27.7 percent of the...

A federal district court judge in Washington DC this week signed off on the proposed $25 billion settlement agreement between the federal government, state attorneys general and the top five mortgage servicers, putting in place a potential template for national standards for the mortgage servicing industry. On April 6, Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered the proposed consent judgments against Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial, including a settlement term sheet and additional exhibits specific...

As the broadening of the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program is in the midst of implementation, servicers need to focus on executing new guidelines. To that end, PricewaterhouseCoopers released analysis on the way the administration’s modification program will impact servicers. Of the many programs and regulations in the works, including full-year forbearance, a homeowners’ bill of rights, real estate-owned rental programs and the joint investigation into mortgage-backed securities issues, the expanding HAMP eligibility is the only one considered “high impact” and in progress, making it...

Banks maintain real estate-owned properties unequally, with properties in minority communities showing clear signs of vacancy while those in white communities receive necessary attention, according to a new investigation by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The investigation, outlined in the report “The Banks are Back – Our Neighborhoods are Not: Discrimination in the Maintenance and Marketing of REO Properties,” looked at 1,036 REO properties in nine different metro areas, comparing those in predominantly Latino and African-American neighborhoods to those in predominately white communities...

Mortgage lenders delivered a hefty $303.9 billion in single-family home loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization programs during the first quarter of 2012, the biggest flow of new business to the government-sponsored enterprises in over a year, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. During the first three months of 2012, GSE single-family securitization jumped 16.2 percent from the fourth quarter. It marked the fourth straight quarterly increase in production of Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities after the market troughed...(Includes three data charts)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency expects to finish its latest assessment of principal reductions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans sometime this month against a backdrop of intensifying public debate over the issue. The Treasury Department this week fought back against claims that its proposed incentive payments to the government-sponsored enterprises, if they agree to principal reduction loan mods, would be a “backdoor bailout” for banks that service these loans. Treasury earlier this year offered to pay the GSEs the same incentives that other investors get for principal reduction loan mods under...

The general pickup in housing activity in early 2012 is welcome news for a mortgage industry both gearing up to unload significant numbers of foreclosed properties and looking to increase home purchase financing this year. But the fact that investors are driving much of the recent surge in home sales is not necessarily good news for mortgage interests. According to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, the investor share of home purchases hit a record-high of 24.2 percent in February based on a three-month moving average. That was up from a 20.9 percent...

Certain watchdog agencies of the federal government have expressed concern to Congress about whether additional steps already taken by the FHA and Ginnie Mae to improve their risk management are sufficient to avert potential government intervention. A recent study by the General Accountability Office and testimony by Department of Housing and Urban Development Inspector General David Montoya before a House panel have raised questions about the financial stability of the FHA and Ginnie Mae and their ability to respond to a major financial crisis. Both the GAO and Montoya concluded that the two agencies...

Two fair lending groups say 2011 data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reveal that Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and others continued making subprime mortgages last year in a way that had a disparate impact on minority borrowers. Fair Finance Watch said the raw data show that African American borrowers last year were 3.38 times more likely to get a so-called rate-spread loan (1.5 percentage points over Treasury yields) from Citigroup than white borrowers, worse than its 2.25 times disparity rate in 2009. Hispanic borrowers were 2.42 times more likely than whites to get a rate...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should assume “a more active role” in its management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and has not been sufficiently proactive in its enforcement and oversight of the two government-sponsored enterprises, according to the FHFA Inspector General. “FHFA’s role as conservator has evolved over time,” the IG said. At the outset of the conservatorships, FHFA forbade the enterprises from engaging in certain activities and retained approval authority over others,” said the OIG report. “Soon thereafter, FHFA delegated day-to-day operational decision making to the...