Most mortgage banking firms – both bank and nonbanks alike – have been posting record profits over the past year, creating the pleasant problem of what to do with all that cash. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past few weeks, certain nonbank owners have been taking cash out of their companies, using the money to pay hefty tax bills. Others have been leaving money in the company and searching for ways to shelter income. One way to do that, according to some tax experts, is to retain originated servicing rights. This is...
Few multistate lenders subject to reviews by state regulators submitted sufficient mortgage call report data last year, according to the Multistate Mortgage Committee. The regulators also cited lenders for origination issues and said they are working toward settlements with smaller servicers. The 2012 annual report released late last week by the MMC detailed two separate widespread data-related violations of state regulations, one involving limited scope electronic exams and the other involving a risk profiling program. The LSE exams were introduced...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could suffer losses of nearly $2 billion on the fair value of their assets if interest rates fluctuate upward by just a single percentage percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s official watchdog. A white paper issued this week by the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General found that despite moves by the Finance Agency and the Treasury to require the two government-sponsored enterprises to substantially downsize their mortgage asset portfolios, interest rate risk remains a “significant concern.” “The increasingly illiquid nature of the GSEs’ mortgage asset portfolios presents...
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