Legislation was introduced this week in the House Financial Services Committee that would strengthen oversight of FHA mortgage servicers to ensure their compliance with the agency’s loss-mitigation requirements. The FHA Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2018 (H.R. 5555) would require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct servicer oversight, including sampling, compliance reviews, and direct information collection from borrowers whose files were sampled. “A decade after the devastating foreclosure crisis, we continue to see significant problems with the servicing of FHA loans that unnecessarily put homeowners at risk of foreclosure,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, ranking member on the committee and sponsor of the bill. Waters said her bill would ensure that FHA servicers help families experiencing financial hardships avoid foreclosure so that they can ...

Lenders will now be able make VA loans to veterans who wish to purchase or refinance a home that needs alteration or repair, under new guidance issued by the VA. According to the VA, it has received inquiries from lenders that have expressed interest in originating and processing loans to finance home alteration and repair. The agency noted that the aging housing stock in the U.S. has spurred an increased demand for such loans. Due to their physical condition, older homes are often sold as “cash or conventional financing,” which immediately excludes VA financing and deprives veterans the opportunity to use their VA benefit. The new policy guidance makes the VA guaranty available to lenders looking to finance home alteration, repair, renovation and improvement. It also allows improvements to be included in the value and completed after the loan is closed. The lender disburses the loan proceeds to the ...

Tim Anderson of DocMagic: “You either get bigger or head for the exits.”

The highest paid Ocwen director last year was Phyllis Caldwell, who took home $372,649. Caldwell is a former Treasury Department official.

Faris is a 27-year veteran of Ocwen, a publicly traded nonbank launched several decades ago by former GE Capital executive Bill Erbey.

Nonbank servicing of agency MBS has nearly doubled since March 2014…

Marano is no stranger to troubled financial service companies. Until 2008, he was a top executive at Bear Stearns...

All of the receivables were originated through the retail channel…

The steamship that is the nonbank share of the mortgage servicing market showed no signs of changing course in the early months of 2018, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. [Includes two charts.]

Not only are several mortgage banking firms exploring sale opportunities these days, but dozens of vendors that serve the industry either have changed hands or are up for grabs as well – with more deals expected in the months ahead.