The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday that Ocwen Financial agreed to a $2.0 million settlement. The agreement covers misstatements of financial results due to a “flawed” methodology to value mortgage servicing rights and conflict-of-interest issues involving William Erbey, the former executive chairman of Ocwen. “Ocwen released inaccurate financial statements because its internal controls were inadequate and its audit committee failed to scrutinize ...

The FHA and VA mortgage servicing markets saw relatively little growth but steady performance trends during the fourth quarter of 2015, after a turbulent market early in the year. A new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of Ginnie Mae disclosure data shows delinquency rates edged slightly lower at the end of last year, although virtually all of the improvement was in the less-severe category of loans 30-60 days past due. The 60-to-90-day delinquency rate was unchanged for FHA loans but up slightly for VA loans. And both programs saw modest increases in loans more than 90 days past due. The data provide a mixed view of growth in the outstanding supply of FHA and VA servicing. According to Ginnie’s monthly summary, the outstanding balance of single-family mortgage-backed securities (excluding home-equity conversion mortgage pools) was $1.495 trillion at the end of ... [ 4 charts ]

The FHA has given lenders and servicers an additional extension through April 17, 2016, to submit due-and-payable notices when Home Equity Conversion Mortgage borrowers fall behind on their property tax or insurance payments. The extended deadline also provides FHA lenders and servicers an opportunity to pursue loss mitigation before initiating foreclosureThe latest deadline extension was the second such extension. In April 2015, the FHA announced a policy change providing HECM lenders and servicers an additional 60 days in which to initiate foreclosure proceedings against any troubled HECM borrower with a case number issued prior to Aug. 4, 2014, with a non-borrowing spouse. Lenders and servicers are required to comply with reasonable-diligence timeframes for such HECMs. Debenture interest will not be curtailed during this period. The April policy allows mortgagees full discretion as to when to use the extension.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. will readjust its current premium rates to meet its modest return-on-equity goal and achieve limited growth in its insurance-in-force in 2016, but whether this will precipitate similar moves across the private mortgage insurance industry remains to be seen. In announcing the company’s fourth quarter 2015 results, Patrick Sinks, chief executive officer of MGIC Investment Corp. and Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., disclosed plans to revise premium rates to “generate comparable returns” across the spectrum of loans the company insures. MGIC expects...

Not only has BofA reduced its presence in the FHA market, but it keeps dumping its Ginnie Mae servicing rights...

The publicly traded nonbank also will consider donating REO to the city...

Meanwhile, servicing income at EverBank fell 26 percent to $26.9 million. Gain-on-sale revenue also fell 26 percent – to $24.7 million.

In another sign that the mortgage market is continuing to heal – at least from the borrower perspective – consumer complaints to the CFPB about their mortgages continued to drop, falling broadly and by double digits in every category tracked by Inside the CFPB during the fourth quarter. Leading the way during 4Q15 was a 45.1 percent plunge in consumers disputing a company’s response to an original complaint, our analysis of information from the consumer complaint…

The CFPB Office of Inspector General found the victim identification process associated with payouts from the bureau’s Civil Penalty Fund is generally effective but could be improved. “During our audit of the CPF, we noted an opportunity to enhance the victim identification process,” the OIG said in a new report. Specifically, the OIG found that the Office of the Chief Financial Officer has not documented the roles and responsibilities of the Office of Technology and Innovation (T&I) in the victim identification process. “The victim identification process is data dependent and in some instances requires the involvement of T&I to produce preliminary lists of eligible victims,” the report added. The OIG attributed the absence of documented roles and responsibilities for T&I ...

The NPLs that Freddie Mac wants to sell currently are being serviced by Nationstar Mortgage.