Republican congressional leadership commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act this week by bashing the massive legislation. But there was not a single mention of making any changes to the mortgage-related provisions in the law. However, Republican leaders of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee demonstrated varying degrees of optimism about enacting broader changes to the controversial law. During a Dodd-Frank discussion forum early this week at the American Enterprise Institute, HFSC Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, in response to a question about the political prospects for reform, said...
It’s been 2.5 years since the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced they were joining forces to begin compiling a National Mortgage Database, and the project continues to spook some in the industry. Several news reports over the past week have billed the initiative as part of the Obama administration’s “secret race database,” based on a report last week by Paul Sperry, a fellow at the Hoover Center. The Federal Housing Finance Agency continues to defend the project as a tool to help regulators ward off future mortgage crises. The NMD will be...
American International Group is reportedly bringing to market $300 million in securitized notes backed by mortgage insurance written by its private MI subsidiary United Guaranty Corp., but the global insurance company is playing it close to the vest. AIG and United Guaranty are keeping details of the risk-transfer transaction under wraps and a spokesperson for UG declined to comment. Credit Suisse is the seller of the notes. Citing company marketing documents, Bloomberg reported...
Wells Fargo won key victories last week with the dismissal of two lawsuits in Chicago and Los Angeles alleging reverse redlining in the cities’ minority neighborhoods, resulting in high foreclosure rates, reduced property values and lost property tax revenues. The lawsuits accused Wells Fargo of targeting minority areas in the two cities with higher-cost loans, even though they could not afford such loans. Eventually, many borrowers defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes to foreclosures. This, in turn, left many vacant homes throughout neighborhoods, driving down property values and costing counties and cities billions of dollars in efforts to eliminate urban blight. In Chicago, a federal district court judge said...
MSRs purchased by Hatteras will be held at Pingora Loan Servicing with the "excess" receivables going to the parent company due tax benefits enjoyed by REITs.
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