Two major banks recently launched their own 3 percent downpayment programs, which stakeholders say could shift volume from FHA to the government-sponsored enterprises. How much volume though remains unclear, analysts say. Last week, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase rolled out their respective low downpayment programs for first-time homebuyers and low-to-moderate-income families, which require only 3 percent down. Neither program involves the FHA, and they appear designed to pick up where Wells and Chase left off when they decided to cut back on their FHA business in order to reduce liability risk. Wells and Chase are among several major banks and nonbanks that have coughed up billions of dollars in settlements with the federal government in the last couple of years to resolve allegations of fraud under the False Claims Act and violations of ...
FHA lenders are breathing a sigh of relief in the wake of a legal opinion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development which effectively invalidates the Inspector General’s position on FHA loans with downpayment assistance provided by state and local housing finance agencies. HUD Deputy Secretary/FHA Commissioner Edward Golding’s recent memorandum left no doubt as to the eligibility of loans partially financed through HFAs’ downpayment assistance programs for FHA insurance. The memo also refuted the IG’s views on downpayment assistance involving “premium pricing” and rejected the severe financial penalties the IG had recommended against the lender. The dispute arose from a 2015 IG audit of NOVA Financial & Investment Corp. The audit report concluded that gift funds obtained through an HFA downpayment assistance program and used to help pay for ...
New Day USA, an exclusive VA lender, is building up its purchase mortgage-lending platform to help grow its VA business by the end of 2018, according to the firm’s top financial adviser.Based in Fulton, MD, New Day is developing its purchase-lending capability to help grow its overall VA business by 20 to 25 percent annually, said Joseph Murin, New Day’s chairman emeritus. “We’re growing slowly,” he said. “We’d rather walk before we run.” An approved VA lender, New Day’s focus has been almost entirely on cash-out refinancing. New Day currently ranks 21st among Ginnie Mae VA sellers for the first quarter of 2016, according to Inside FHA/VA Lending’s database. The company closed the first quarter with $463.1 million in VA loans, up 22.8 percent from 4Q15 and up a whopping 87.6 percent on a year-over-year basis. “We are spending a lot of time developing and understanding the ...
Eleven lenders paid a total of $152.1 million in civil penalties and settlements while three others lost their FHA approval for various violations of FHA requirements, according to the Mortgagee Review Board’s latest report on administrative actions taken against FHA-approved lenders. As required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the report summarizes the disciplinary actions imposed by the board on FHA lenders from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015. These actions include $151.7 million in settlements and $370,119 in civil money penalties, withdrawals of FHA approval, suspensions, probations and reprimands. Allied First Bank of Oswego, IL, agreed to pay a $17,000 civil money penalty for improper use of FHA’s name in certain correspondence and for failure to notify HUD of a consent order entered into by the bank and federal and state banking regulators. The MRB voted to ...
The FDIC said that acting as a receiver of the failed banks it “may professionals and entities whose conduct resulted in losses to those institutions…”
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