In Simms Parris v. Countrywide Financial Corp., the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of a consumer claim against Countrywide, ruling that the homeowner, Simms Parris, had no direct cause of action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act because she did not first notify the credit reporting agency of her dispute with the lender. …
In Commonwealth Property Advocates, LLC v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.; CitiMortgage, Inc.; et al., the Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court determination that MERS has the right to enforce deeds of trust regardless of whether the underlying debt has been sold and securitized. In this case, the original borrower had transferred her interest in the property to a third-party entity, Commonwealth Property Advocates, which litigated questioning MERS’ authority under the trust…
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have issued a Request For Information, seeking the industry’s insight on new options for selling current and future single-family real estate owned properties held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA. The RFI will delve into alternatives for maximizing value to taxpayers while boosting private investment in the housing market, including ways that will support rental and affordable…
Massachusetts. State Attorney General Martha Coakley has secured a $124.8 million settlement with Sand Canyon – which had done business as Option One in a previous life – that closes the book on claims of unfair and discriminatory lending practices by the former subprime lender. Under the terms of the settlement, the company must instruct its servicer, American Home Mortgage Servicing, to make principal reduction modifications for delinquent Option One borrowers. American Home acquired…
Department of Housing and Urban Development Loan limit guidance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to release guidance by the end of August that will detail which loans are eligible for the higher conforming loan limits, along with additional requirements for using the higher loan limits, according to Inside FHA Lending, an affiliated publication. …
Fannie Mae is moving ahead to buy out some $880 million of distressed FHA and VA mortgages from multi-class structured securities the government-sponsored enterprise guaranteed because the sellers have stopped making contractually required interest shortfall payments after loan modifications resulted in lower interest rates. That means investors in those securities can expect to receive an unscheduled distribution on Aug. 25, 2011, the GSE said. Fannie made the initial purchase on Aug. 1, 2011. Fannie said it will release additional information on the purchase of the remaining ...
Ocwen officials said last week that they are in talks with various mortgage holders to acquire more than $250 billion in mortgages to service. “We are in the midst of several discussions that could result in one or more substantial additional transactions later this year or early next year,” said William Erbey, chairman of Ocwen.Ron Faris, president and CEO of Ocwen, added that many of the deals are large and could involve servicing platforms. Most of the potential acquisitions are related to primary servicing, not subservicing.The announcement comes as Ocwen is set to ...
A decline in high-cost conforming loan limits come October will either destabilize the mortgage markets or have a negligible impact on borrowers, depending on who is talking. Legislation to maintain temporarily elevated loan limits was recently introduced in the Senate, leading some non-agency players to fear that an extension is more likely. Sens. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Johnny Isakson, R-GA, last week introduced S. 1508, “the Homeownership Affordability Act of 2011.” The bill would extend high-cost conforming loan limits of up to $729,750 until ...
Wells Fargo agreed last week to settle with disgruntled Wachovia shareholders regarding Wachovia’s option ARM portfolio. Wachovia and its affiliated entities agreed to pay $590 million and KPMG, Wachovia’s auditor, agreed to pay an additional $37 million. The settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The claims asserted by government-run pension and retirement funds were largely based on allegations that Wachovia misrepresented and/or omitted material facts regarding the quality of the ...
Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America dominated the FHA jumbo market during the first six months of 2011, accounting for a third of total jumbo loan originations during the period, according to Inside FHA Lending’s latest analysis of the sector. The two financial institutions outdistanced their competitors by producing a total of $3.04 billion in FHA-insured mortgage loans, nearly a third of the $10.2 billion of government-insured jumbo loans originated during the first half of the year. Top-ranked Wells Fargo generated $1.90 billion in FHA loans exceeding $417,000 for an 18.7 percent market share, while BofA claimed... [Includes two data charts]
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