The Community Home Lenders Association told the CFPB that the existence of the bureau as a dual regulator along with state supervision of nonbank lenders is exacerbating the consolidation of such community lenders to the detriment of consumers. “In establishing and implementing mortgage rules, Congress and the CFPB have recognized the value of smaller community lender/servicers and created certain targeted exemptions, such as certain Regulation Z and Regulation X exemptions for smaller servicers,” the CHLA said. The trade organization’s remarks were delivered in a public comment letter submitted to the agency as part of the bureau’s TRID clarifying rulemaking process. The problem is, these exemptions generally are targeted towards community banks and credit unions, and legislation pending in Congress is ...

The Consumer Mortgage Coalition and the Mortgage Servicers Working Group last week requested guidance from the CFPB on a variety of implementation issues having to do with the bureau’s recently finalized mortgage servicing regulation. One of the things they asked for in correspondence to the bureau was confirmation that servicers may send bankruptcy statements before the regulation’s effective date, even if the servicers are not currently sending them. On the issue of short-term loss mitigation, the industry participants requested clarification that, prior to Oct. 19, 2017, servicers may offer and provide short-term repayment plans without a complete loss mitigation application, and without continuing to exercise diligence in completing an application, provided a handful of requirements are otherwise being met. They ...

Real estate investment trusts that focus on the residential MBS market reported a modest decline in agency MBS holdings during the third quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. A group of 17 large, publicly traded mortgage REITs held a combined $217.24 billion of agency MBS at the end of September, down 1.2 percent from the mid-year mark. But the decline was largely due to shuffling in the ranks that resulted in two firms exiting the business. Annaly Capital Management completed...[Includes one data table]

Freddie Mac and Shellpoint Partners are preparing to price new securities in the aftermath of the presidential election, and Select Portfolio Servicing priced $600.0 million in an MBS backed by servicer advance receivables this week. Freddie is about to issue a Whole Loan Securities transaction, which would mark the second such issuance from the government-sponsored enterprise this year and the fourth overall, dating back to the first WLS transaction that closed in July 2015. The balance of the planned Whole Loan Securities Trust, Series 2016-SC02, is...

In case you didn’t know it, the Irvine, CA-based Citadel now services roughly $650 million in nonprime loans. Angel Oak and Deephaven use subservicers…

PHH officials say the company has improved its servicing operations in recent years and agreed to the consent order “to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation.”

Another candidate for the HUD job is believed to be Pam Patenaude, president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families.

What might Donald Trump do with the quarterly earnings of Fannie and Freddie? Think about it…

Mortgage lenders and servicers could see a dramatic change in the regulatory environment following the election of Donald Trump as president with a GOP-controlled Congress. During a campaign of many and sometimes conflicting promises, Trump vowed to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act, which would require Congressional action and, if carried out in its entirety, would abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Some observers think a more likely outcome is a restructuring of the CFPB itself and curbing of some regulatory and enforcement actions, perhaps with new leadership. Mortgage lending issues were...

Come February 1 of next year, Fannie Mae will temporarily halt bulk transfers of mortgage servicing rights as it upgrades its reporting systems, a change the industry has known about for quite some time, but one that still promises to cause headaches. The moratorium runs from Feb. 1, 2017, through March 31, according to Fannie lender letter LL-2016-01, at a time when seller-servicers are implementing new investor reporting requirements. The government-sponsored enterprise is advising servicers that if they want to avoid disruption they “should not propose post-delivery servicing transfer effective dates that fall during” the two months. According to investment bankers that buy and sell servicing rights for a living, the moratorium can be worked...