As mortgage lenders begin preparing for the new mortgage disclosure regime being instituted by the CFPB’s final rule, they should revisit lessons learned during their previous adventures with the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “RESPA reform from January 1, 2010, is still close in many of our minds, and we remember back to ’09 being a year that we spent a massive amount of time implementing that new regulation,” said Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division at Wells Fargo. Then in 2010...

The qualified mortgage is here, and while the rotation of the earth has yet to slow, there are still several areas of the regulation that are not crystal clear to much of the industry, including some questions having to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases of mortgages being originated under the new regime. For instance, “If lenders bake the loan-level price adjustments into the interest rate, are they allowed to show those adjustments to the originator? If they show them, will the CFPB count them into the points and fees?” asked Tammy...

Public Comments on the Mortgage Closing Process are Due Feb. 7. Early in January, the CFPB solicited consumer comments on the mortgage closing process, specifically asking consumers to identify the key “pain points” associated with mortgage closing and how they might by addressed by market innovations and technology. The bureau specifically said it wanted comments on how to increase the use of technology and promote inventions that encourage a more streamlined mortgage closing process while also improving consumer knowledge. The CFPB...

Total FHA delinquencies rose slightly while the percentage of seriously delinquent loans remained flat in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA servicing data. Data showed delinquencies of 90 days or more remained unchanged at 8.1 percent from the previous quarter even as total FHA delinquencies increased a bit to 15.2 percent from 15.1 quarter over quarter. The share of loans that are 30-60 days behind on their payment also increased to 7.1 percent from 6.9 percent over the same period. As of Dec. 31, FHA servicers had a combined ... [1 chart]

“It’s a utility bill refi,” said Kristian Hanelt, a senior vice president of renewable capital markets at Clean Power Finance, which provides financial services to the solar industry.

Although the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac common securitization platform is now legally incorporated, has a signed lease for office space in suburban Maryland and is growing staff, it still doesn’t have a chief executive and chairman – two essentials to be taken seriously by the market. “It’s pretty much turned into the mess I suspected it would a year ago,” said one former candidate for the CEO job, who spoke under the condition his name not be used. Discussing the chairman position, he added...

DOJ’s initial penalty calculation was based on the gross loss to Fannie and Freddie from the default of the loans, but now the government says the court should use gross gain, instead of net gain to set the maximum allowable penalty.

Federal prosecutors have been successful in defending their use of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 in pursuing mortgage-related securities fraud and will continue to use the statute aggressively in enforcement actions barring any adverse court action, according to industry compliance experts. Only a handful of FIRREA cases were filed in the first 20 years after enactment of the statute, mostly simple fraud cases. In the last two years, however, the government has aggressively used FIRREA and the False Claims Act to target financial institutions for activities related to the origination, rating, securitization and servicing of residential mortgages. Of the two statutes, the government has pushed...

A Manhattan federal bankruptcy court this week approved Lehman Brother’s proposed $2 billion-plus settlement that would end an $18.9 billion claim filed against the defunct investment bank by Fannie Mae over soured mortgage securities. Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, signed off on the settlement agreement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government-sponsored enterprise, as well as Lehman’s wholly owned subsidiaries Aurora Commercial Group and Aurora Loan Services. ALS was a large Alt A lender/servicer. The deal grants...

President Obama’s scant mention of housing finance reform or mortgage policy during this week’s State of the Union address was not entirely a surprise, say industry observers, but an administration official’s remarks last week on the Home Affordable Refinance Program’s outlook were more encouraging. Obama spoke of housing exactly twice during his prime time speech: first to describe the housing market as “rebounding” and again to demand from Congress “legislation that protects the taxpayers from footing the bill for a housing crisis ever again.” Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac were mentioned...