On Tuesday the Fed will hold an open meeting to discuss final rule-making tied to the Basel III accords, which affects the value of mortgage servicing rights.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take on the presidential recess appointment issue in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, the odds are high that Richard Cordray’s appointment will also be reviewed and perhaps declared unconstitutional, according to the consensus expectations of a number of industry representatives. And if that happens, it could be a real mess for the mortgage lending community, according to one top industry lobbyist. In Canning, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Spreads have widened significantly on non-agency jumbo MBS in recent weeks, cutting into issuers’ profits.

According to exclusive figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends, Citigroup had $748 million of disputed buybacks with the GSEs at March 31.

Authorizing the FHA to shift mortgage-servicing rights from one processor to another could have a ripple effect on Ginnie Mae servicing rights.

When rates shot up quickly, were some MBS investors caught behind the eight-ball?

A former federal prosecutor, Linick is credited with creating the agency’s Office of Inspector General from the ground up.

HUD Explains ‘Good Neighbor Next Door’ Program. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued Mortgagee Letter 2013-20 to clarify certain things about the FHA’s Good Neighbor Next Door Sales program. The program allows eligible borrowers to purchase, at 50 percent off the list price, a HUD-acquired single-unit home located in an area that the department has targeted for revitalization. According to HUD, the mortgage insurance premium should be based on the first mortgage only. The agency also clarified the process for allowing interruptions to ...

Deep-freezing the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program’s full-draw, fixed-rate standard product apparently has not diminished borrowers’ appetite for reverse mortgages as indicated by a significant increase in HECM originations in the first quarter of 2013. FHA endorsements under the HECM program surged 36.2 percent during the first three months of 2013, with lenders reporting $3.84 billion at the end of the quarter, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Volume was also up a modest 5.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the ... [1 chart]

Reverse mortgage lenders, consumer groups and certain advocates for the elderly are urging Congress to enact legislation passed recently by the House of Representatives granting the FHA additional authority to govern its reverse mortgage program. Testifying before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development, the groups said the most productive action Congress can take is to pass H.R. 2167 to allow HUD to make expeditious changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program through mortgagee letters. The bill, which the House approved on June 12, would ...