Ocwen Financial Corporation is no longer in danger of losing its Ginnie Mae issuer status after the agency earlier this month officially announced its concerns over the specialty servicer’s problems with state regulators are resolved. Ocwen, a publicly traded Florida corporation, disclosed in a new filing that, based on information it provided to Ginnie Mae regarding the resolution of state cease-and-desist orders issued by a coalition of state banking regulators, the agency considers the issue to be concluded. In April last year, 30 state mortgage regulators issued cease-and-desist orders to prevent Ocwen from servicing loans within their jurisdictions. The servicer was accused of substandard loan servicing that violated state and applicable federal laws The orders generally prohibited Ocwen from acquiring new mortgage servicing rights, originating or acquiring new mortgage loans for which Ocwen would be the ...

An undetermined defect is causing the Department of Veterans Affairs’ loan servicing reporting system to spit out duplicate bill-of-collection transaction numbers. The VA Home Loan Guaranty staff is collaborating with the Administrative Loan and Accounting Center (ALAC) to work around the issue. The resolution to correct the defect in the VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) application is scheduled to be included in the 18.4 VALERI release on Dec. 8, 2018. VALERI is in the first phase of a three-year project to convert from a system for reporting and storing servicing data to an end-to-end mortgage-processing platform. The VA also has issued a number of servicing alerts and reminders. Liquidation appraisal fees in Colorado will increase in certain counties effective Sept. 1, 2018, so that all counties will have the same fee per property type. The fee changes will be updated and reflected on the ...

yyang@imfpubs.com Mortgage Bankers Association is concerned that many lenders won’t be eligible for a new 20 percent tax deduction for pass-through entities. Lenders that retain their production in portfolio look to be eligible for the deduction, but there is uncertainty around businesses that originate and sell loans. In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, the MBA argued companies that finance real estate loans should be able to claim the deduction. See this Friday’s edition of…

Cenlar and Dovenmuehle, which rank first and second, respectively, experienced slow growth during the period…

Gregory Funding is in the first year of a three-year expansion plan…

Celebrity Financial has several M&A irons in the fire...

In Washington mortgage servicers must now maintain recorded telephone conversations with consumers for three years after the date of the call…

Bright has been mentioned in housing and mortgage circles as a possible successor to FHFA Director Mel Watt.

“Zillow could have done this on a much larger scale. Heck, they could’ve bought Ditech,” said industry consultant Paul Hindman.

The state of Washington recently tightened its rules for mortgage servicers, another indicator that state regulators may pick up the slack from a perceived pullback by federal regulators regarding mortgage servicing. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions earlier this month amended its regulations under the Consumer Loan Act, requiring servicers to inform the DFI if the company’s capital falls below levels required by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or if their ...