Realtors and fair-lending advocates are outraged over reports that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has ordered the removal of language ensuring “inclusiveness and discrimination-free communities” from the department’s mission statement. A spokesperson for HUD denied the report, blaming it on faulty reporting by the Huffington Post on March 6. Carson later followed up with his own denial in an open letter to HUD employees, which the department made public. The initial press report cited a March 5 memo written by Amy Thompson, assistant secretary for public affairs, and addressed to HUD political staff. In the memo, Thompson talked about ongoing efforts to update the mission statement to align HUD’s mission with the Trump administration’s priorities. She added that Carson helped in the development of the new statement as well as urged senior staff to ...
Accounting firm Deloitte & Touche has agreed to pay the federal government $149.5 million to settle False Claims Act liabilities arising from its audits of failed FHA lender Taylor, Bean &Whitaker Mortgage Corp.Deloitte was TBW’s independent outside auditor from 2002 through 2008, when the subprime mortgage market unraveled, triggering a financial and housing crisis. The Department of Justice alleged that, during the period in question, TBW had been running a fraudulent scheme involving the purported sale of fictitious or double-pledged mortgages. According to court documents, Lee Bentley Farkas, former chairman of TBW, and six other banking executives engaged in a more than $2.9 billion fraud scheme that contributed to the failures of Colonial Bank and TBW. Farkas and his crew allegedly misappropriated in excess of $1.4 billion from Colonial Bank’s warehouse lending division in Orlando, FL, and approximately $1.5 billion from Ocala Funding, a mortgage-lending facility controlled by TBW.
The reverse-mortgage industry is in an uncomfortable place in the first quarter of 2018 due to lower volumes, higher costs and lower margins – the same issues that ail the traditional forward-lending business currently, says a new analysis by the Stratmor Group. Applications and counseling requests are down more than expected for this time of the year despite the recent rule changes implemented by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure the long-term viability of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Stratmor projects HECM volume at $1.6 billion in 2018, down from approximately $2.0 billion in 2017, due mainly to dwindling refinances. “Given the reduction in the interest-rate floor, it is reasonable to expect that gain-on-sale margins will decline, but just how far, who knows,” said Jim Cameron, a senior partner at Stratmor. “The reduction in unit ...
Bipartisan Measure to Protect Vets from Loan Churning Added to S.2155. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, with strong support from Democrats, offered a substitute amendment to S.2155 that includes the language of S.2304, the Protecting Veterans from Predatory Lending Act, to protect veterans from abusive refinancing schemes. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, introduced S.2304 as a stand-alone bill on Jan. 11, 2018. S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, aims to promote economic growth, provide tailored regulatory relief, and enhance consumer protections. S.2155 was introduced on Nov. 16, 2017, and reported out of committee on Dec. 5. It was added March 8 to the Senate’s schedule for consideration. Bill Introduced to Prevent Spread of Reverse-Mortgage Foreclosures in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia City Council is considering ...
Donald Lampe, a partner in Morrison & Foerster, said: “the basic design of the no-action letter process was not very effective from day one,” because of excessive burdens it imposed on applicants.
Before going into government service, Bright co-authored a housing-finance reform paper with former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco…
The Senate started consideration this week of a regulatory reform bill that includes a provision to expand the definition of qualified mortgages. The bill has some bipartisan support and could pass the Senate, with companion legislation potentially approved by the House later this year, according to industry analysts. The Senate next week is scheduled to resume consideration of S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which would loosen ...
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