The transition from a market hot with refinances to a more traditional purchase market has made the industry ripe for new and old mortgage fraud schemes, according to CoreLogic. The company’s National Fraud Risk Index reached 133 in the second quarter, a slight uptick from the first quarter, but it represents the highest it’s been since the index was introduced in 2010. That number was 122 in the fourth quarter of last year. With all of the moving parts and players involved in a purchase transaction versus a refinance, CoreLogic said, there are...
Investors in certain residential MBS transactions backed by defaulted mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis are a step closer to being made whole, more than four years after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with JPMorgan Securities, Bear Stearns and some affiliates over allegations they misled investors and mishandled bulk settlement proceeds. The case involved is Securities and Exchange Commission v. J. P. Morgan Securities LLC, EMC Mortgage, LLC, Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities I, LLC, Structured Asset Mortgage Investments II, Inc., SACO I, Inc., and J. P. Morgan Acceptance Corporation I, Case No. 12-CV-1862 (RLW). In November 2012, the SEC filed...
This year, nonprime production across the U.S. might top $3 billion to $4 billion at best. At its peak last decade, it was a $1 trillion a year business. That’s not a misprint…
Companies looking to acquire servicing via bulk transfers need to be mindful of how the transaction will impact borrowers, according to analysts at Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Officials at Stratmor warned that a poorly executed transfer can significantly reduce servicing value as dissatisfied borrowers are unlikely to refinance with the lender/servicer. Michael Grad, a senior partner at the firm, said a servicing operation that maintains a strong borrower relationship and ...
Walter notes: “We have already achieved cost reductions in a number of areas, but there can be no assurance that we will be able to reduce costs so as to enable the servicing business to return to profitability in the near term or at all.”
Ocwen Financial caught a potentially big break last week when the judge overseeing its dispute with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau granted its request to invite the Department of Justice to weigh in. “There are at least two clear reasons to invite the Attorney General to participate here,” the company told Judge Kenneth Marra, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. First, it noted, district courts are required to notify the attorney general of a constitutional challenge in any action in which the U.S. government is not a party. Second, the U.S. attorney general recently filed...
It’s safe to say that CFPB Director Richard Cordray has been one of the most controversial financial regulators to work in Washington, D.C. for quite some time...