With origination volumes sucking wind this year, plenty of mortgage companies are pondering whether now is the time to sell, but so far few deals of any size have been consummated. That may change in the coming months. On the buy-side, a dozen or so potential acquirers have emerged, including such growth-minded nonbanks as Prospect Mortgage, RPM Mortgage – both of which are based in California – and possibly AmeriSave Mortgage of Atlanta. Also, Willie Newman, the former CEO of Cole Taylor Mortgage, has teamed up...
The New York Department of Financial Services said it has concerns that certain nonbank servicers are using complex arrangements with affiliates to side-step borrower protections in force-placed insurance. Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky detailed what he called a “troubling” scheme between Ocwen Financial and a “related party,” Altisource Portfolio Solutions. “This complex arrangement appears designed to funnel as much as $65 million in fees annually from already-distressed homeowners to Altisource for minimal work,” Lawsky said in a letter this week to Timothy Hayes, Ocwen’s general counsel. According to the NYDFS, Ocwen recently implemented...
The Consumer Financial Potection Bureau has been asked to make certain clarifications to the mortgage servicing rules that took effect early this year amid growing industry concern over the high cost of compliance. In a recent letter to the bureau, the American Bankers Association asked the agency to clarify the application of the “120-day rule,” which prohibits servicers from sending notice or filing for foreclosure unless the borrower is 120 days or more behind on the mortgage payment; requirement for periodic statements for charge-offs; and publication of an interim final rule providing bankrupt borrowers limited exemptions from the servicing rules. Complying with the servicing rules is...
Five years after the first round of loan modifications began in April 2009 under the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program, 32,111 loans are scheduled for their first interest rate resets this October. The impact of this first wave is expected to be limited. But in each of the next successive four years, HAMP resets will reach into six-figure territory, and by the time the smoke clears, upwards of 800,000 loans will face multiple interest rate tests. “The HAMP resets will be...
The New York Department of Financial Services’ exam of Ocwen Financial has expanded into a force-placed insurance deal with Altisource Portfolio Solutions.
The American Bankers Association told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that its members are working hard to refine their implementation of the bureau’s new mortgage servicing rules, but have bumped into a handful of questions and concerns they’d like the agency to address via regulatory guidance or amendment.
Shortly before Congress left town for its annual summertime break, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-LA, introduced S. 2641, legislation to amend the Truth in Lending Act to provide that residential mortgage loans held in portfolio would be deemed qualified mortgages for purposes of satisfying the requirements of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule.
The CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission and 15 state attorneys general, as well as other state agencies, announced a number of legal actions last month against alleged foreclosure relief scammers they accused of using deceptive marketing tactics to rip off distressed homeowners across the country. The CFPB filed three lawsuits against companies and individuals it asserted collected more than $25 million in illegal advance fees for services that falsely promised to prevent foreclosures or renegotiate troubled mortgages. The bureau is seeking compensation for victims, civil fines and injunctions against the companies and individuals it identified. One of the lawsuits was filed against Clausen & Cobb Management Company, Inc., its owners, Alfred Clausen and Joshua Cobb, and their business associate, attorney ...
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