The Mortgage Review Board reported approximately $454.4 million in settlements against 25 FHA lenders for various violations of agency lending requirements and imposed more than $1.8 million fines and other penalties against 253 lenders for annual recertification violations. The settlements and penalties resulted from administrative actions taken by the board against FHA lenders from Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2016. The settlements did not constitute an admission of liability or fault. The largest settlement amount, $113 million, was between Freedom Mortgage of Mount Laurel, NJ, and the Department of Justice to resolve alleged violations of FHA requirements and the False Claims Act. In August last year, the MRB voted to release Freedom from any civil money penalties or administrative actions as part of the lender’s settlement with the DOJ. The largest civil money penalty imposed by the ...
When it comes to selling Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing rights the past two years, it’s been mostly a bear market, but all that may be changing soon. At least that is what sellers and their merger and acquisition advisors hope. Mark Garland, executive vice president of MountainView Financial Solutions, Denver, said that of late, “We have seen a few Ginnie trades go off at a level closer to full value.” Garland told Inside FHA/VA Lending that he expects this trend to continue with prices tightening over the summer “provided rates hold and [prepayment] speeds stay largely in line with expectations.” And if that happens, there could be an increase in the ability of FHA/VA lenders to securitize excess cash flows. But that’s getting a little ahead of the equation. Over the past 24 months, the Ginnie MSR market has been difficult for two reasons: the fear of lawsuits/sanctions tied to FHA lending, and fast ...
Judgment Imposed on Former President and Founder of Loan Correspondent Firm. A federal court in Chicago ordered the former president and founder of MDR Mortgage of Palatine, IL, to pay more than $10 million to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for submitting false certifications on FHA loans. The HUD Inspector General Office and the Department of Justice withheld the identity of the former bank official, who was found liable under the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act. The violations allegedly involved loans the FHA insured from 2006 through August 7, 2008, the period during which MDR submitted the allegedly false certifications. The DOJ identified 237 loans that MDR processed during the period in question. The loans defaulted and resulted in $3.4 million in claims paid by the FHA. In addition, MDR provided annual verifications to ...
For Wells, the bigger question might be: did its “account fabrication” scandal of 2016 (which is still reverberating at the company) affect its mortgage business?
In June of last year, DeMarco co-authored a Milken Institute white paper entitled “Why Housing Reform Still Matters." In it, he argues: "…we need to preserve the liquidity and capacity of an active, globally financed MBS market…”
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