FHA lenders should spend the next couple of months familiarizing their staff with the requirements in the FHA’s new Single Family Housing Policy Handbook to ensure proper implementation of the changes on June 15, 2015, according to compliance experts. The impending changes in the Single Family Handbook are complex and significant. Lenders will need proper legal guidance to navigate and understand hundreds of pages of consolidated housing policies and guidance, as well as substantive changes to FHA requirements, said K&L Gates experts in a recent analysis. The handbook is a consolidated, authoritative source of single-family housing policy and is meant as a one-stop resource for FHA lenders. It gathers and streamlines all FHA requirements, which are currently spread throughout various handbooks, mortgagee letters and other documents, making it easier for lenders to ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently sued a reverse mortgage lender and issued consent decrees against two other mortgage companies for misleading consumers with false advertising about FHA-insured mortgage products. The CFPB filed suit against All Financial Services (AFS), a Maryland-based reverse mortgage lender, in the federal district court in Baltimore alleging that the lender disseminated misleading ads for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans between November 2011 and December 2012. In addition, AFS allegedly failed to maintain copies of the ads as required by the CFPB under its reverse mortgage regulations. According to court filings, the CFPB alleges that the lender/broker mailed out ads using materials and language that seemed to indicate that it was a federal entity or an affiliate of a government entity. All AFS ads appeared as if they were ...
The Department of Veterans Affairs expects to have a finalized Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule by May to help clear up some issues that have arisen since the agency issued an interim final rule last spring. The VA issued the interim QM rule for comment on May 9, 2014, to define which VA loans will have QM status under the ability-to-repay (ATR) rule. Issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the ATR rule provided temporary QM status to loans eligible for FHA insurance and guaranties by the VA and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service. Eligible government-backed loans must be 30-year fixed-rate with no interest-only, negative amortization or balloon features. Total points and fees must not exceed 3 percent of the total loan amount for loans of $100,000 or more. Loans that meet the definition of a temporary VA-eligible QM are considered as in compliance with the ATR rule. They are designated as “safe harbor QMs,” provided they are not ...
Private mortgage insurers ended 2014 in better financial shape and with a stronger market position than a year earler, although new business volume fell sharply in the fourth quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Private MIs reported $46.94 billion in new insurance written during the fourth quarter of 2014, a figure that could change slightly when National MI releases its earnings after Inside Mortgage Finance goes to press. Our estimate for the firm is based on volume trends reported by its competitors. While private MI business was down 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter, total mortgage originations fell...[Includes three data charts]
After Freddie Mac makes its next dividend payment in March to the U.S. Treasury, the GSE will have returned $91.8 billion to the government versus financial assistance draws of $72.3 billion.
Warehouse commitments written by commercial banks reached approximately $33 billion at yearend, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance – one of the healthiest readings in several quarters and a sign that all is well in the originations market. The only thing bothering most warehouse managers is how long the good times can last. “There is...[Includes one data chart]
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