The Republican leadership of the House Financial Services Committee this week unveiled a comprehensive housing finance reform bill, including a series of proposals to “right size” the FHA, redefine its mission and reestablish it as a stand-alone agency. At the same time, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, announced they have reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation that would ensure the solvency of the FHA. Both lawmakers expect to introduce a bill next week. The House FHA reform measures were introduced in tandem with reform proposals for ...

The FHA has proposed measures to strengthen its oversight of FHA lenders and each measure could potentially increase lenders’ liability and compliance risk, compliance experts warned. Published for comment in the July 9 Federal Register, the proposals are part of a new enforcement regime that the FHA is considering to monitor and sanction lenders. They cover statistical sampling, origination quality standards, annual reviews, compare ratios, and indemnification and other remedies for loan defects. The proposed enforcement measures, however, raise a ...

A post-endorsement review of FHA loans during the first quarter of 2013 has revealed a high percentage of materially defective loans.The defects apparently went undetected during the underwriting process and were uncovered only during a loan-level review that the FHA routinely conducts to ensure that newly originated, higher-risk loans comply with agency requirements. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Lender Activities and Program Compliance reported that 44 percent of 6,251 single-family mortgage loans that were reviewed in the first ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has urged holders and servicers of home loans with a VA guaranty to consider principal reduction when evaluating a distressed loan for possible modification. In a recent circular, the VA noted that it is not able to reimburse any principal reduction because a VA claim is payable only upon termination of a loan, and any forgiven amount is no longer part of the borrower’s mortgage debt. However, principal reduction in a loan modification may produce a higher expected return for a servicer than termination of the loan, the VA said. This is especially true when the sum of the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is adopting the mortgage banking industry’s data standards format for the FHA’s TOTAL Mortgage Scorecard, which HUD uses to evaluate the credit risk of FHA loans that are submitted through an automated underwriting system. The standards were developed by the Mortgage Industry Standard Maintenance Organization (MISMO), a nonprofit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. MISMO is an open data standards group that promotes consistency among mortgage transaction participants to reduce loan processing costs, increase transparency, and ultimately ...

Cerberus' purchase of PREO Mortgage of Atlanta could be the beginning of something big for the company.

Over the years Sharga has briefed government organizations such as the Federal Reserve and Senate Banking Committee.

In general, mortgage applications are off 25 percent from their peak. Meanwhile, a Wells Fargo employee with an NMLS number has been arrested.

More sales of mortgage servicing rights are expected as a result of final Basel III capital rules approved by U.S. bank regulators over the past week. As anticipated, the Federal Reserve and other agencies declared that mortgage servicing rights cannot exceed 10 percent of Tier 1 capital – or 15 percent when deferred tax assets are factored into the equation. As was originally proposed, any MSR amounts above 15 percent must be deducted from Tier 1 capital, and any amounts included in capital will carry a risk weight of 250 percent. “Mortgage servicing rights were not given...

Mortgage banking and brokerage firms are about to start laying off production workers as refi applications continue to decline, but industry executives say the heaviest layoffs are unlikely to come until the end of summer. That’s when lenders begin closing mortgages that first entered the pipeline in May, when the application picture was brighter. According to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mortgage banking and brokerage sectors employed 293,800 full-time workers in May, compared to 295,500 in April, a loss of 1,700 positions. Compared to a year ago, employment is up 10 percent. The brokerage sector alone employed...