A Treasury Department report called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish clear standards for determining which mortgage-related violations and loan defects the Department of Justice should pursue under the False Claims Act. The report also recommended that DOJ ensure that materiality, for purposes of the FCA, is linked to the standards of the agency administering the program to which the claim has been filed. Furthermore, it urged both HUD and the DOJ to work together to clarify the process by which they can jointly resolve claims. The report was issued pursuant to President Trump’s February 2017 executive order establishing his administration’s policy to regulate the U.S. financial system according to a set of core principles. Both HUD and the DOJ have been successful in using the statute to prosecute FHA lenders who knowingly commit fraud or make ...
On Aug. 1, the U.S. Senate voted 92-6 to pass a four-bill appropriations package that includes FY 2019 funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture housing programs. The bill passed without changes to program funding levels previously approved by Senate appropriators. The House Appropriations Committee has approved FY19 spending bills for both HUD and USDA. The full House, which is away for the summer break until Sept. 4, has not yet voted on the package. The Senate bill retains the previous fiscal year’s $400 billion in new loan commitments in the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and $30 billion for the general insurance and special risk insurance program, which include special purpose single- and multifamily loans, multifamily rental housing and condominiums. The bill also sets aside $550 billion for Ginnie Mae ...
Fewer rural single-family mortgages and modified home loans with a USDA guarantee were securitized during the first six months of 2018 compared to last year. Delivery of USDA loans into Ginnie Mae pools over the last two quarters totaled $8.6 billion, down 10.1 percent from the same period last year but up 12.4 percent in the second quarter from the prior period. PennyMac topped all USDA issuers with $1.7 billion worth of rural housing MBS issued during the first half of 2018, up 22.1 percent year-over-year. New issuance also rose 30.0 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, enough for a 20.2 percent share of the securitized USDA market. ... [chart]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is placing all single-family foreclosure processes under one roof and under one team. A comprehensive plan is being implemented to centralize all foreclosure functions to make them more effective, efficient and focused on customers, the agency said. Part of the plan is to consolidate individual state private-attorney agreements into a single contract across the single-family portfolio. USDA sees the state-by-state PA contracts as “bridge agreements” to a larger procurement award that allows foreclosure services to be conducted on a nationwide basis, said Joel Baxley, administrator of the USDA Rural Housing Service. Baxley said foreclosure resolutions are taking too long and are costly due to backlogs, which, in turn, results in unnecessary losses to the government. Streamlining the process and developing one foreclosure and ...
Roughly $97.1 billion of bulk mortgage servicing rights changed hands in the second quarter, bringing year-to-date activity to $193.3 billion, according to Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter. But even stronger sales may lie ahead.
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