CFPB Remains on Radar of Hostile House GOP. The activities and influence of the CFPB will be a subject of keen interest to hostile Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee, according to the committee’s recently published agenda for the 113th Congress. The committee said it will scrutinize the CFPB’s regulatory, supervisory and enforcement initiatives to make sure they protect consumers against unfair and deceptive practices without stifling economic growth, job creation or reasonable access to credit. “In...
Banks are likely to pursue more bulk sales this year and the next to rid their books of nonperforming real estate assets, which could attract investors looking for better yield, according to Fitch Investors Service. Successful bulk sales will allow more banks to concentrate on their core banking services, while reducing their costs of holding nonperforming real estate loans on their balance sheets, said Fitch analysts. Sales at banks with high volumes of nonperforming commercial-related loans also are expected to pick up over the next 12 to 18 months, particularly as many commercial real estate (CRE) loans originated before the financial crisis near maturity, they added. Investors such as hedge funds, high-yield asset managers and other lightly regulated entities seeking higher returns in a low interest-rate environment have caused...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will closely monitor sales of servicing, particularly to nonbanks, and require new contingency plans from servicers, the agency announced last week. The new scrutiny was prompted by complaints from borrowers as nonbank special servicers have increased their purchases of servicing in recent years. “The CFPB will, in appropriate cases, require servicers engaged in significant servicing transfers to prepare and submit written plans to the CFPB detailing how they will ...
The amount of subprime mortgages outstanding continues to fall, although performance leveled off in 2012 after significant declines in delinquencies beginning in 2010. Some $475.0 billion in subprime mortgages were outstanding at the end of 2012, according to estimates by Inside Nonconforming Markets, down 12.8 percent from the end of 2011. Only two major subprime servicers increased their subprime mortgage holdings in 2012 compared with the end of 2011: Ocwen Financial and ... [Includes one data chart]
The $25 billion national servicing settlement has prompted an increase in principal reduction loan modifications on non-agency mortgages, according to the Treasury Department. However, most of the servicers participating in the settlement have not yet met their principal reduction obligations. Last week, the Treasury said servicers have increased their use of principal reduction outside of the Home Affordable Modification Program’s Principal Reduction Alternative due to the ... [Includes one data chart]
FCI Lender Services ended December with $2.3 billion of private money loans in its servicing portfolio, a 27 percent gain from the same period a year earlier. The nation’s largest private money servicer said it is seeing an increase in contracts and growth in “soft money” loans backed by residential real estate. Gordon Albrecht, chief strategy officer at FCI, said soft money loans currently account for 50 percent of the firm’s business, which is based in Anaheim, CA. “That’s a record for us,” ...
The Treasury Department approved $10.0 million in federal funds this month for a limited pilot of a program to allow non-agency borrowers with negative equity to refinance. The program in Oregon’s Multnomah County includes characteristics of a proposal from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, who said the pilot could create a national model. The Oregon Housing and Community Services Department will use money from the Hardest Hit Fund to help non-agency mortgages with loan balances up to $250,000 and ... [Includes one brief]
House Republicans may be able to pass tough FHA reform and solvency legislation out of committee but they may not have enough votes on the House floor or in the Senate to sustain such a bill, according to industry sources. Even after two successive hearings in the House Financial Services Committee this month, there has been no clear indication from Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, as to which proposals might go into a legislative package of FHA reforms. Hensarling is said to be operating “with a very strong hand,” and if it were up to him entirely, he would draft legislation that would contain some ...
Wells Fargo suffered a big legal setback after a federal judge denied its request to enforce a consent judgment under last year’s landmark $25 billion servicing settlement to prevent a New York lawsuit from proceeding. Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected Wells Fargo’s argument that the new government suit filed in Manhattan district court was improper because it violated the consent judgment against Wells Fargo and flies in the face of the judgment’s “liability release” provision. Wells Fargo argued that the allegations in a civil mortgage fraud suit filed by ...
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