Donald Lampe, a partner in Morrison & Foerster, said: “the basic design of the no-action letter process was not very effective from day one,” because of excessive burdens it imposed on applicants.
Before going into government service, Bright co-authored a housing-finance reform paper with former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco…
Ocwen Financial plans to resume growing its servicing and originations business by acquiring PHH. The transaction is scheduled to close in the second half of this year. Ocwen plans to acquire PHH with $360.0 million in cash and assume $119.0 million of outstanding corporate debt. According to Ocwen, there will be enough cash on PHH’s balance sheet to fund $260.0 million of the $360.0 million purchase price. Both companies have been struggling ... [Includes one data chart]
The Senate started consideration this week of a regulatory reform bill that includes a provision to expand the definition of qualified mortgages. The bill has some bipartisan support and could pass the Senate, with companion legislation potentially approved by the House later this year, according to industry analysts. The Senate next week is scheduled to resume consideration of S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which would loosen ...
With comprehensive housing-finance reform looking unlikely to be passed by Congress anytime soon, some industry analysts project that the Trump administration will take administrative actions to shrink the roles of the government-sponsored enterprises. Under a plan detailed last week by the American Enterprise Institute, the GSEs could be eliminated over time without legislation, with the non-agency market filling the void. The “Taxpayer Protection Housing Finance Plan” was ...
Embrace Home Loans hired a former official from Deephaven Mortgage to serve as director of mortgage product innovation. Deephaven has focused its correspondent production on non-qualified mortgages while Embrace is looking to expand its retail products. Parkes Dibble, the new hire, was previously a vice president of capital markets product development at Deephaven. Embrace said Dibble will lead efforts to strengthen the “depth and breadth” of ... [Includes two briefs]
Ginnie Mae is considering a risk-sharing pilot that would have private capital absorb some of the potential losses on FHA loans securitized through the agency. In remarks at the Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas recently, Michael Bright, executive vice president and chief operating officer with Ginnie, said no decision has been made on any credit-enhancement structure, as consultations with stakeholders are still ongoing. “We are actively looking at structures we can put in place where we bring in private capital to provide a [partial] guarantee,” explained Bright, Ginnie’s acting president. “The FHA is going be involved in a lot of them.” A risk-share partnership between FHA and private credit enhancers not only would protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund but reduce taxpayer risk as well, observers said. The risk-sharing concept would have private mortgage insurers assuming ...