The Department of Justice has announced settlements with two nonbank FHA originators to resolve allegations of FHA underwriting fraud and False Claims Act violations. Franklin American Mortgage in Franklin, TN, recently agreed to pay $70 million to resolve allegations it knowingly originated and underwrote FHA-insured loans that did not meet agency guidelines. There were also quality-control issues. According to the DOJ, Franklin Mortgage, a direct endorsement lender, agreed it had certified ineligible loans for FHA insurance starting Jan. 1, 2006, including single-family residential loans, reverse mortgages and streamlined refinances. Those loans later resulted in claims submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, causing losses to the FHA insurance fund. The DOJ also alleged that the nonbank lender employed unqualified junior underwriters and set high quotas for its ...
Quicken Loans’ chief executive officer reiterated threats by company owner Dan Gilbert to exit the FHA business amid concerns about a forthcoming lender-certification rule and an ongoing court battle with the Department of Justice. A report by Reuters quoted Gilbert earlier this week as saying he is considering pulling Quicken Loans out of the FHA market. In an interview with IMFnews, Quicken CEO Bill Emerson said top management would be remiss if it did not think about exiting the business. Quicken will decide whether to stay or go after the FHA releases its revised rule on lender certification later this month, he said. The revised proposal restores a provision initially removed from the original proposal, which would require lenders to certify that neither the firm nor its officers have been suspended, debarred or excluded from participation in any federal agency transactions. In addition, the revised proposed rule requires ...
An Urban Institute analysis echoed observations in the FY 2015 actuarial audit of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, calling for the separation of the highly volatile reverse mortgage portfolio from the fund. Assessing the performances of the larger forward mortgage portfolio and the smaller Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio when determining FHA’s financial status results in an inaccurate picture, warned Laurie Goodman, director of the institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. Including the highly unstable, unpredictable HECM business in FHA’s solvency calculation severely distorts the fund’s true financial condition, she said. Goodman’s dire warning puts a damper on the actuarial audit, which, for the first time since 2009, reported the fund’s capital ratio over the 2.0 percent statutory threshold, up from 0.41 percent in FY 2014 and a year earlier than projected in the ...
A coalition of financial services trade groups expressed support for the permanent extension of the one-year protection from foreclosure for service members who have just left the military. The provision under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act will expire at the end of 2015 and revert to the original 90-day protection unless extended by legislation. Eight industry trade organizations in a joint letter urged House lawmakers to extend the provision through 2016 if they cannot make it permanent. Some service members continue to face financial hardship upon returning to civilian life, the groups noted. Slow recoveries in real-estate markets in certain areas of the country, particularly those around military bases, make it difficult for those retiring or opting out after their tour of duty is up to sell their houses. The protection becomes effective on the date the service member is ...
New foreclosure timeframes will become effective for all VA loan terminations completed on or after Jan. 4, 2016, according to a recent notice issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The notice provides a table of foreclosure timeframes – the number of calendar days required to complete a foreclosure – which the VA has determined to be reasonable and customary for all states. The timeframes are important in the calculation of the maximum interest payable on a foreclosure of a VA-guaranteed loan. The VA Home Loan Guaranty program offers a partial guaranty against loss to lenders who make home loans to veterans and active-duty military personnel. Agency regulations spell out the circumstances under which VA will pay loan-guaranty claims. Under VA rules, a guaranty claim can include unpaid interest for a period of up to 210 calendar days from the due date of the ...
The VA Home Loan Guaranty program has announced a new percentage that lenders can use in calculating the purchase price of a property securing a terminated loan. The new percentage becomes effective on Dec. 23, 2015. When a veteran borrower defaults on a VA loan, the agency is obligated to pay a guaranty claim to the loan holder. If requirements are satisfied, a foreclosing loan holder also has the option of conveying a foreclosed property to VA. A key component in conveying a property to the VA is the net value of the property to the federal government. Net value, essentially, is the fair market value of the property minus the total cost the agency estimates it would incur in acquiring and disposing of the property. A percentage that VA computes annually represents the costs of acquisition and disposition. The agency refers to this computed percentage as the “cost factor.” VA is continuing ...
HUD-IG Issues Industry Warning Against HECM Refi Scam. The inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued an alert to warn lenders, originators and sponsors about fraudulent appraisals that are being used to inflate reverse loan amounts in order to qualify borrowers for HECM financing. Auditors have reviewed HECM refinances over the last several years and have found indications of fraud in hundreds of HECM loans, the IG said. Specifically, appraised values were inflated by 60 to 100 percent or more above the collateral’s actual market value. FHA Announces Lender Recertification Webinar. The FHA will present an online webinar that will assist FHA lenders with the upcoming lender recertification process. Scheduled for Dec. 15, 2015, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., EST, the webinar will provide details and tips on how FHA lenders can submit an ...
Some 66.5 percent of the loans to be included in the MBS are purchase mortgages. The mortgages have seasoned for four months, on average and none were delinquent at the time the deal was priced.
This lender said finding good appraisers can sometimes be a challenge and predicted that eventually appraisals on such mortgages could cost upwards of $1,000…
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