As federal programs to help underwater borrowers are phased out, government agencies want the mortgage industry to pick up where it left off to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure. They suggested that future programs be accessible, affordable, sustainable, transparent and have sufficient accountability. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Department of Treasury, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report this week that discussed what future loss mitigation programs should look like and lessons learned. The Home Affordable Modification Program and related federal initiatives will sunset at the end of 2016. “With the formal end of the crisis-era programs, the mortgage servicing industry will shoulder...
Small community lenders such as banks and credit unions not only have remained active in the mortgage servicing space under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage-servicing rules, their market share of 13 percent in 2015 was double what it was in 2008 after the financial crisis, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The largest community banks and credit unions accounted for most of the growth in the share of servicing by community banks and credit unions, the report said. Many of the representatives from 16 community lenders that GAO interviewed said...
The Democratic Party wants to expand programs to prevent foreclosure, increase access to affordable housing and preserve the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, according to its recently released 2016 platform. “Whereas the Republican Presidential nominee rooted for the housing crisis, Democrats will continue to fight for those families who suffered the loss of their homes,” the document says. “We will help those who are working toward a path of financial stability and will put sustainable homeownership into the reach of more families.” Democrats want...
Class-action plaintiffs might not be assured of a final victory despite a favorable jury verdict in the wake of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s affirmation of district courts’ power to decertify a class even after a jury verdict. Industry attorneys say that the court’s recent ruling in Mazzei v. The Money Store means that defendants can obtain decertification of a class action not only leading up to trial, but even after a jury verdict in favor of the class. In Mazzei, the Second Circuit reaffirmed...
Caliber executive William Pendleton noted the nonprime MBS recently issued by Lone Star Funds (which owns Caliber) will help the lender significantly reduce interest rates on new originations.
Smaller depositories held 8.0 percent of the banking industry’s total mortgage servicing assets in 2015, up from a share of less than 2.0 percent as recently as 2009.
“We have a pretty good idea of what the bureau is going to do in substance,” said Donald Lampe, a partner in the financial services group at Morrison & Foerster…
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