Marketing services agreements (MSAs) continue to be a flashpoint for conflict between title companies and the CFPB under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Late last month, the bureau ordered Lighthouse Title, a Michigan title insurance agency, to pay $200,000 for entering into what the CFPB characterized as illegal quid pro quo referral agreements, in violation of RESPA. According to the bureau, Lighthouse Title entered into MSAs with various companies, such as real estate brokers, with the understanding that the companies would refer mortgage closing and title insurance business to Lighthouse. “The agreements made it appear as if the payments would be based on marketing services the companies were supposed to provide to Lighthouse,” the CFPB said. “However, Lighthouse actually ...
The good news is the CFPB is proposing updates to its integrated disclosure final rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The bad news is the CFPB is proposing updates to its integrated disclosure final rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The final rule – commonly known as the “TRID” – has been high on the mortgage lending industry’s list of concerns ever since it came out nearly a year ago. And with every rule issued, there are calls from one segment of the industry or another for various additions, deletions or modifications. As happy as industry representatives are when the CFPB makes such a concession, they ...
However, the CFPB official said the no-action letters would not give a requesting entity an exemption from complying with any statutory or regulatory rules.
Given the wide gap between the initially unacceptable findings and the subsequent “refresh” results, some lenders may ask the FHA to discontinue its disclosure of initially unacceptable findings.
FHA to Extend Short Refi Program. The FHA has announced its intent to extend its Short Refinance Program for borrowers in negative equity positions. A mortgagee letter will be issued soon to announce the extension. Feedback Period extended for Draft Servicing Section of Proposed Single Family Handbook. The FHA is extending the comment period for the draft servicing section of the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook through Nov. 14, 2014 to allow stakeholders additional time to study and comment on the proposed section. The original deadline date was Oct. 17. CFPB Updates Reverse Mortgage Guide. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently updated its reverse mortgage guide on its website to account for recent changes made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. The updated guide highlights new limits to ...
President Obama this week released his agenda for creating economic opportunity for millennials, including greater access to mortgage credit through FHA. While the economy has recovered and there has been some improvement in the housing market, millennials are on a much slower pace toward homeownership than previous generations, the president said. Many are in rental housing, ready to become homeowners but are locked out by the tough, restrictive lending environment, he added. Millennials – identified as those born between 1982 and 2004, also known as Generation Y – are finding it harder to purchase homes because of lender overlays, high mortgage insurance premiums and high downpayment requirements. It also has been difficult for anyone with a credit score below 680 to obtain a purchase-mortgage loan. In his agenda, Obama expressed concern over the ...
Like all new automated systems, FHA’s Lender Electronic Assessment Portal (LEAP 3.0) was not without technical glitches when the agency rolled it out back in May. Users immediately reported difficulties in certain functions, such as adding new branches, making changes to existing branches and changing cash flow accounts. The FHA ever since has been working to iron out the kinks to allow lenders to submit their annual recertification packages with ease. So far, certain fixes have been implemented allowing lenders to add, edit and delete branch and regional managers, delete attachments uploaded to LEAP and properly update cash flow accounts in the database. The FHA also changed the way lenders edit their principal affiliations in LEAP. In addition, newly approved lenders now have access to the new system. Furthermore, the FHA expanded to 250 the maximum allowable characters lenders may use when ...
An internal audit found as many as 136 borrowers not living in the properties for which they have obtained FHA-insured reverse mortgages because they were also receiving federal housing assistance under a different address. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General discovered the anomaly during a follow-up review of HUD’s oversight of the home-equity conversion mortgage program to ensure HECM borrowers comply with residency requirements. A previous audit had red-flagged potential residency violations. In the latest review, auditors analyzed HUD’s data warehouse for single-family mortgages and its public housing information system from April 2011 through March 2014 and identified 159 potential violators of the residency rule. Of those potential violators, 136 were found to be not occupying the properties associated with their HECM loans but, instead, ...
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