Bank holdings of home-equity loans continue to decline, with mixed performance trends. Regulators warn that home-equity lines of credit originated before the financial crisis are a particular concern as the loans are set to reach their amortization periods. Banks and thrifts held $1.05 trillion in HELOCs, HELOC commitments and closed-end seconds as of the end of the second quarter of 2013, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. The holdings declined by 1.9 percent ... [Includes one data chart]

Two top Democrats on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs called upon the FHA to revise its eligibility policy to enable more distressed borrowers to qualify for loan modification. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, urged FHA Commissioner Carol Galante in a letter to eliminate a provision that requires borrowers to be “currently employed” in order to receive loss mitigation assistance from the FHA. The FHA inserted the provision into the FHA guidelines for ...

It’s not a surprise that FHFA has been quiet about its not-overly popular state-level g-fee proposal, according to Robert Bostrom, a shareholder at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig and a former general counsel at Freddie Mac.

Now that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has put together its first jumbo MBS, can a security collateralized by non-performing loans be far behind? “We’ve looked at it,” said a company spokesman. “We’d like to do one down the road, but we’re not there yet. For us, it will happen when the execution of NPLs is more economical.” One thing is...

The industry believes there are problems in the QM rule's content and requirements as well as in developing policies and procedures to support the measure and implement it.

The implementation date for lower GSE loan limits is being shifted to the end of the first quarter, or so we hear. Meanwhile, Citadel enters the market for stand-alone seconds.

The Office of Management and Budget has cleared a proposed rule setting qualified mortgage standards for FHA-insured single-family mortgages for issuance in the coming weeks. The OMB signed off on the proposed standards on Sept. 12 and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has a few more refinements to perform before publishing the proposal for public comment. HUD declined to discuss the contents of the proposed standards or indicate a timetable for a final QM rule. Industry participants, on the other hand, said they would be surprised if ...

The end of the fiscal year is drawing near, which means in a couple of weeks the FHA again will be in the hot seat as Congress, mortgage industry participants and consumer groups pore over the results of the latest fiscal year audit of the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. This time, stakeholders might find some encouraging data, observers say. The findings of the FY 2012 actuarial review conducted by Integrated Financial Engineering, Inc. brought a lot of heat on the FHA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, reigniting calls for FHA reforms in the House and the Senate. Reform bills are currently ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s top internal cop has criticized the department before a congressional panel for its poor oversight of FHA’s single-family programs, particularly in short sales and disposition of real estate-owned properties. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, HUD Inspector General David Montoya said the department continues to face challenges in ensuring its single-family programs benefit eligible participants and are not paying improper claims. In a recent review of FHA’s preforeclosure sales program, the IG estimated that ...

Federal housing regulators and Congress may have relied on inaccurate and outdated data while keeping track of FHA loan defaults and identifying potential risk to the FHA insurance fund, according to a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General. The HUD IG said it initiated an audit after observing delayed reporting of default information on loan histories. The OIG performed the audit between November 2012 and July 2013. HUD did not comment on the report.The department requires lenders to report monthly all loans that are 30 days past due. Prompt and accurate reporting provides ...