Based on a referral from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the CFPB has compelled a Texas homebuilder to surrender more than $100,000 he received in alleged kickbacks for referring mortgage origination business to entities the bureau asserts are sham mortgage companies. According to the CFPB, the homebuilder, Paul Taylor, received illegal referral fees through partnerships with Benchmark Bank and Willow Bend Mortgage Company. Taylor and Benchmark created and jointly owned Stratford Mortgage Services LC, which claimed to...
Aspects of the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule and ‘qualified mortgage’ standards may make credit access difficult for homebuyers with low credit scores, including many low-income and first-time homebuyers, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke said recently. “First, the QM requirement that borrower payments on all debts and some recurring obligations must be 43 percent or less of borrower income may disproportionately affect less-advantaged borrowers,” Duke said. “Board staff tabulations based on the Survey of Consumer Finances...
Most of the CFPB’s requirements stemming from its blizzard of mortgage rulemakings in January take effect sometime next year. But there are a few notable exceptions, including the Truth in Lending Act ban on mandatory arbitration provisions in certain mortgage loans, which kicks in June 1, 2013. “Lenders now using mortgage loan documentation containing such provisions should take steps to ensure that they (and references to them) are removed from documentation to be used for loans that will be subject to the ban,” said Alan...
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is apprehensive about the unintended consequences of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s decision to limit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac future mortgage purchases to ‘qualified mortgages’ as defined by the final rule issued earlier this year by the CFPB. Earlier this month, the FHFA directed the two government-sponsored enterprises to limit their future mortgage acquisitions to loans that meet the requirements for a qualified mortgage, including those that meet the special or...
While non-agency MBS participants largely oppose a credit rating assignment system proposed by Sen. Al Franken, D-MN, some of the main players in the market endorse a model based on ratings rotation. At a roundtable hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Martin Hughes, CEO of Redwood Trust, said issuer-paid rating conflicts could be reduced by requiring non-agency MBS issuers to alternate rating services so that one firm didn’t rate more than two consecutive deals from the issuer. He noted that Redwood has established a self-imposed rotation between Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on its non-agency MBS issuance. “The requirement to frequently alternate among the nationally recognized...
Freddie Mac is offering $1.0 billion of its non-agency MBS holdings for sale, according to a spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise, part of efforts to meet requirements set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae also plans asset sales of some sort, but wouldn’t commit to selling its non-agency MBS holdings. Freddie held $70.28 billion in non-agency MBS at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and Fannie held $31.22 billion. The GSEs purchased the non-agency MBS before 2009 and have allowed the holdings to run off ever since. The FHFA recently required...
Shellpoint Acceptance Corp. hopes to come to market with its first non-agency MBS by summer, securitizing not only jumbo loans, but a host of mortgages that fall outside Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting guidelines for different reasons. According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has committed $2 billion in capital to its shelf registration, though its first deal will be smaller than that. Shellpoint refers...
Risk-sharing transactions using credit-linked notes may be one path toward the goal of getting the government-sponsored enterprises out of conservatorship, experts told members of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment this week. The current GSE MBS market provides trillions of dollars of financing to the mortgage market while government guaranties and other structural features are required to maintain this market, according to Andrew Davidson, president of Andrew Davidson & Co. “As any part of GSE reform, I believe...
The Federal Reserve’s MBS purchase party isn’t over – yet – but it looks like the nation’s central bank is getting nearer to the last call. Late last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that officials at the nation’s central bank have developed a strategy for dialing back their unprecedented level of support of the housing market. The plan involves reducing the amount of bonds the Fed buys “in careful and potentially halting steps,” the WSJ said, with the purchases varying on the read officials have of the job market and of inflation. And although the timing of the Fed’s wind-down is...
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