Lawsuits filed by the city of Miami against Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were revived by an appeals court this week. The fair housing lawsuits allege a decade-long pattern of discriminatory lending that caused the city economic harm. The lawsuits were filed in December 2013. Miami claimed that predatory lending by the banks caused minority-owned properties in the city to fall into unnecessary or premature foreclosure, which deprived Miami of tax revenue and forced the city to spend more on municipal services to combat blight. The city made claims under the Fair Housing Act and state law. The city backed up...

A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of PNC Bank last week in a lawsuit involving the Home Affordable Modification Program. The plaintiff in the case was seeking class-action status, and other courts have allowed such claims to move forward. The ruling in favor of PNC was a “major victory,” according to the law firm of BuckleySandler, which represented the servicer in the case. Virginia McGann filed...

A recent order from the Federal Communications Commission may force mortgage servicers to use clunky old rotary phones to reach out to distressed borrowers facing foreclosure, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition. The FCC’s order, released June 18, 2015, attempts to strengthen consumer protections against unwanted telephone calls and texts by, in part, restricting the ability of mortgage servicers, debt collectors and others to make autodialed or prerecorded phone calls without prior express consent of the person called. Violators face...

Moreover, one warehouse executive told IMFnews that he is beginning to get requests for increased capacity.

When the Stearns announcement was made some of its competitors began speculating on what might happen to the acquisitions down the road.

Pershing Square and Perry Capital began loading up on GSE “junior” preferred two years ago, but not because they thought it was a great investment...

Almost 60 percent of the repurchases made in the first half of 2015 involved loans that were securitized by the GSEs in 2013 and 2014.

In a statement, Stonegate said Cutillo will be “redirecting” his “entrepreneurial energy on a new endeavor going forward.”

The top five jumbo MBS servicers handle 83.3 percent of the loans, with Cenlar alone claiming a 38.4 percent share.

According to a new report from Compass Point Research & Trading, a gain-on-sale index the firm created has been contracting the past month...