The near-zero default rate seen on mortgages originated in recent years combined with lenders’ extensive underwriting processes provide “clear evidence” that lenders should loosen underwriting standards, according to Laurie Goodman, director of the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. Wells Fargo originated more than 2.10 million conventional conforming mortgages between 2011 and the end of the first quarter of 2016. Only 4,082 of them became 60+ days past due in the first 24 months after origination, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Goodman said...
Fair housing groups continue to press allegations that Bank of America has neglected foreclosed homes and created eyesores in African-American and Latino communities in more than 200 cities. The National Fair Housing Alliance, along with nine local fair housing organizations, filed an amended federal complaint against BofA last week. In the complaint they added a number of neighborhoods in six additional cities where investigations revealed foreclosed homes that have not been properly maintained. This brings...
Nonbank mortgage originators continued to feel the heat of scrutiny from the CFPB over the last year, new data show. The number of the bureau’s examinations of non-depository mortgage lenders jumped an eye-popping 220.0 percent as of June 30, 2016, compared with the mid-year mark in 2015, according to data provided exclusively to Inside the CFPB from the agency per a Freedom of Information Act request.Further, in each of the first two quarters of this year, the CFPB examined as many nonbank mortgage originators as it had for the entire second half of last year, the data show. On the other hand, nonbank servicers got a slight reprieve, with CFPB exams falling 66.7 percent year over year (YOY) and ...
Laurie Maggiano, servicing and secondary markets program manager at the CFPB, appeared at a recent forum on housing finance sponsored by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic and highlighted the most significant changes the bureau has made to its 2013 mortgage servicing rules. She began with requests for clarification that servicers themselves made of the CFPB. “There are clarifications that servicers can indeed enter into short-term repayment plans without collecting a complete application document for consumers,” Maggiano said. Also, there is now more flexibility for servicers to stop collecting documents for a particular loss mitigation option when it is evident the borrower is not a candidate for the option.Additionally, the bureau provides clarification on how servicers select a reasonable deadline ...