Wells Fargo Settles with FHA for a Record $1.2 Billion. Wells Fargo, the largest player in the Ginnie Mae market, last week agreed to pay the Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development $1.2 billion to settle FHA underwriting claims. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wells noted that the agreement “resolves certain civil claims that the federal government had pending” against the lender tied to FHA lending from 2001 to 2010. But it also covers “other potential civil claims relating” to the megabank’s government production in other time periods as well. The megabank, which also is the nation’s largest overall home lender and servicer, saw the settlement coming and booked an additional “legal ...

In the fourth quarter, 20.3 percent of refi loans sold to the GSEs were in the low-score category, the highest level for the year.

In November, Judge Sweeney denied Fannie Mae’s motion to quash or invalidate a subpoena issued by the plaintiff’s counsel…

During the subprime boom, HSBC owned Household Finance, a once-top ranked subprime lender and servicer that was later cited for lending and servicing violations.

Ginnie Mae even posted a 5.6 percent increase in refinance loan securitizations...

Colonial National Mortgage was a beta site for the IDR and Allen Maulsby, executive vice president of the bank, said the IDR process is very “legalistic…”

Among those hiring is Jordan Capital Finance, Chicago, which seeks to add new loan reps and a senior vice president of sales and business development...

Laurie Goodman, director of the HFPC, said lenders have “plenty of room to safely ease credit.”

Jefferies Funding is underwriting a securitization of a revolving warehouse facility for agency mortgages originated by two nonbanks. The $225.0 million Station Place Securitization Trust 2016-1 received provisional Aaa ratings this week from Moody’s Investors Service. The rating service said the transaction is based on a “back-to-back” repo structure, with the three classes of notes scheduled to be paid off one year after issuance. The proceeds from the sale of the notes will be used by the issuer to purchase eligible mortgages and participation certificates from the repo seller. The revolving warehouse facility will be sponsored...

A federal appeals court in Denver unanimously affirmed a lower court ruling that a claim of damage related to an originator/seller’s misrepresentation accrues when the loan is sold. Ruling in six cases involving plaintiffs Lehman Brothers Holdings and Aurora Commercial Corp. versus Universal American Mortgage Co. and Standard Pacific Mortgage, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected plaintiffs’ contentions that their claims were really “indemnification” claims that did not accrue until they bought the loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The overarching issue in this complicated case is...