The CFPB last week initiated an administrative action against PHH Mortgage, accusing the firm of participating in a multi-million-dollar kickback scheme involving captive mortgage insurance reinsurance. The regulator said an investigation it conducted showed “that when PHH originated mortgages, it referred consumers to mortgage insurers with which it partnered. In exchange for this referral, these insurers purchased ‘reinsurance’ from PHH’s subsidiaries.” The bureau continued, “PHH took the reinsurance fees as kickbacks, in violation...
With the recent data breach at the Target national retail chain and the disclosures about the National Security Administration by whistleblower Edward Snowden still fresh in mind, House Republicans are pressing the CFPB over the integrity and security of its various database initiatives. Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, took issue in particular with the national mortgage database project the CFPB is engaged in, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “I think you...
As mortgage lenders begin preparing for the new mortgage disclosure regime being instituted by the CFPB’s final rule, they should revisit lessons learned during their previous adventures with the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “RESPA reform from January 1, 2010, is still close in many of our minds, and we remember back to ’09 being a year that we spent a massive amount of time implementing that new regulation,” said Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division at Wells Fargo. Then in 2010...
The qualified mortgage is here, and while the rotation of the earth has yet to slow, there are still several areas of the regulation that are not crystal clear to much of the industry, including some questions having to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases of mortgages being originated under the new regime. For instance, “If lenders bake the loan-level price adjustments into the interest rate, are they allowed to show those adjustments to the originator? If they show them, will the CFPB count them into the points and fees?” asked Tammy...
Public Comments on the Mortgage Closing Process are Due Feb. 7. Early in January, the CFPB solicited consumer comments on the mortgage closing process, specifically asking consumers to identify the key “pain points” associated with mortgage closing and how they might by addressed by market innovations and technology. The bureau specifically said it wanted comments on how to increase the use of technology and promote inventions that encourage a more streamlined mortgage closing process while also improving consumer knowledge. The CFPB...
“It’s a utility bill refi,” said Kristian Hanelt, a senior vice president of renewable capital markets at Clean Power Finance, which provides financial services to the solar industry.
At deadline we got wind of a former Wall Street investment banker who is setting up a fund to help independent mortgage firms (nonbanks) raise capital.
Issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities is expected to remain constrained until a number of issues are sorted out, from reform of the government-sponsored enterprises to an increase in demand from investors. “The non-agency MBS market is stuck somewhat in limbo until we know where the GSEs are going,” said Steven Abrahams, head of securitization and MBS research in the U.S. at Deutsche Bank Securities, during last week’s ABS Vegas conference. More than 5,600 people registered ...
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