The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review a dispute over closing fees in a move that may resolve a potentially entrenched circuit court conflict over the scope of the Real Estate Settlement Practices Act prohibition against unearned fees. At issue is RESPA Section 8(b), which provides that “[n]o person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split or percentage of any charge made or received for the rendering of a real estate settlement service in connection with a transaction involving a federally related mortgage loan other than for services actually performed.” As the U.S. government...

After negotiating with a potential buyer, Bank of America gave up trying to sell its correspondent business and will simply shut the program down by the end of the year, leaving a huge potential hole in the market. The rumored bidder, NationStar Mortgage, reportedly wanted a higher price than BofA was willing to pay to take the correspondent unit off the bank’s hands. “After a comprehensive review of market opportunities, Bank of America will close its correspondent lending channel by the end of 2011, following an orderly transition with clients,” the company said in a written statement. BofA, which had already...

A “who’s who” list of a number of the largest and most well-known mortgage lenders in the country – including Wells Fargo, Countrywide Home Loans, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, GMAC Mortgage Corp., Citimortgage and Suntrust Mortgage – have been accused by two whistle-blower types of charging U.S. military veterans illegal fees to refinance their home mortgages. According to the accusations, made in a complaint unsealed in federal court in Atlanta late last week, the mortgage lending entities charged refinance fees that are prohibited by the Department of Veterans Affairs and hid the charges by padding or inflating other allowable charges so they could obtain government guarantees for the mortgages, all without telling the veterans.

Subprime lending remained subdued in 2010, according to newly released data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Higher-priced mortgages – the Federal Reserve’s revised proxy for subprime mortgages – accounted for 3.2 percent of the number of loans originated in 2010. Some $7.14 billion in higher-priced mortgages were sold in 2010, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Ginnie Mae continued to account for the largest portion of the sales at 35.0 percent in 2010, up from 21.1 percent the previous year. ... [Includes one data chart]

High-quality endorsements and lower-than-expected prepayment speeds have given a slight boost to the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund in the second quarter of 2011 even as agency officials remained cautiously optimistic about the recent book of business. In its quarterly report, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said that the MMI fund’s total capital improved by $100 million to $31.7 billion from the previous quarter as revenues from premiums and property sales exceeded higher claims payments. Endorsements in the second quarter alone added $1.7 billion to the capital reserve account, which stood at $2.8 billion at the end of June, the report noted. The FHA capital reserve account, which absorbs ...

A proposed FHA rule on “seller concessions” recently listed as withdrawn from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ review process is now being cleared for issuance by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA spokesman Lemar Wooley clarified that the long-awaited proposal was not withdrawn as reported but “delayed” as a routine requirement for an Economic Impact analysis. “But now it is moving again,” he explained in an email. “It is in the clearance process and we hope to publish a proposed rule before the end of the year. According to Wooley, the proposed rule would ...

Expanding approved lenders’ reach in originating FHA-insured single-family mortgage loans is a “positive step” in improving their ability to compete with non-approved and sponsored FHA originators, according to industry participants. The recently revised FHA policy eliminates the geographical restrictions imposed upon direct endorsement lenders, which limited their FHA originations to designated lending areas. Under the new policy, loan origination and servicing may be conducted from an approved lender’s home office, branch office or direct lending branch office. HUD no longer has to approve a lender’s branch office facilities. However, all office facilities, regardless of type, must ...

A report on 2010 mortgage lending activity under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act further confirms data that government-backed lending and overall purchase lending are falling – which may stall economic recovery, according to industry observers. While FHA and VA loans continue to account for a historically large proportion of loans, such lending fell more than did other types of lending, said the Federal Reserve in its analysis of the latest HMDA data. On a yearly basis, home purchase lending in 2010 was down almost 9 percent from 2009 and 62 percent lower than in 2006, when nearly 712,000 purchase mortgages were originated, the Fed said. The volume of home-purchase originations fell ...

VA-approved lenders should not submit payments for loans closed on or after Oct. 1 until the impact of recent legislation passed by Congress and awaiting President Obama’s signature becomes clear, the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a recent notice. The legislation apparently provides higher funding fees for VA home loans, contrary to changes in funding fees announced by the VA in Circular 26-11-12 on Sept. 8. Lenders were advised not to act until further notice. If the President signs the legislation, it will, in effect, keep funding fees at their FY2011 rates through Nov. 17, 2011, the VA said. This means ...