Industry representatives are making headway in obtaining clarification from the Federal Reserve on various aspects of the agency’s controversial regulation on loan originator compensation. But there are a number of key questions that still have to be addressed, and until they are, lenders need to proceed carefully, according to a top official at one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. One area in which the industry needs clarification has to do with compensation based on “time spent” as it pertains to different loan programs and products, and whether compensation can be established on a loan-by-loan basis or by...

California Attorney General Kamala Harris this week announced a new mortgage-fraud investigating force to monitor and prosecute deviations from the mortgage processes required by law. The new group, called the California Attorney General’s Mortgage Fraud Strike Force, will be composed of attorneys and investigators from the state Department of Justice (both civil and criminal), and will oversee processes such as mortgage loan origination and the way mortgage-backed securities are marketed to investors. “We will work to safeguard the homeowner at every step of the process – from origination of a loan to its securitization – and we will...

The complexity of the task of getting a brand new agency of the federal government, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, up and running could slow the adoption of national mortgage servicing standards...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently released a letter on preemption maintaining that, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, its 2004 preemption rule still applies to national banks...

Florida. The state legislature recently passed SB 1613, which allows licensed loan originators to work as contract loan processors or in-house loan processors, but includes in-house loan processors in certain disciplinary provisions...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host workshops for directors of nationally chartered community banks and federal savings associations in New York at the Hilton New York, June 28-29, 2011...

There is "not even a whiff of a hint of a compromise" between Congressional Republicans and President Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress over the possible appointment of Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to some industry insiders...

Congressional Republicans are doing just about everything they can- short of calling on U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 - to weaken, throttle, starve or deep-six the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau before it gets up to full speed...

A handful of Congressional Democrats aren't letting the prospect that legislation they are sponsoring may go nowhere in committee keep them from trying to toughen the terms of the regulatory debate over national servicer standards...

The U.S. Supreme Court last week called upon the Solicitor General for advice on whether the high court should review a case involving allegations that Quicken Loans obtained unearned "loan discount fees" in some mortgage loan transactions in Louisiana, contrary to Section 8(b) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act...