In a sign that Senate leaders are continuing their work on comprehensive housing finance reform, representatives of the mortgage lending industry were given an opportunity this week to opine on the exact features such a package should have, and they took full advantage of it. Gary Thomas, president of the National Association of Realtors, speaking before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, offered a baker’s dozen of specific proposals for elements of a future finance system, including an “efficient and adequately regulated secondary market,” which he said is essential to providing affordable mortgages to consumers. Also, the government-sponsored enterprise system “with private profits and taxpayer loss” must be replaced...

Essent Group, a privately capitalized mortgage insurance firm, has announced plans to raise $286 million through the sale of 19.7 million common shares to fund the growth of its MI subsidiary. The initial public offering will be made at a price range of $13.50 to $15.50 per share, according to the company’s filing with Securities and Exchange Commission. Domiciled in Bermuda, Essent has been approved to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ESNT.” Essent Group is offering...

Early indicators suggest that private mortgage insurers saw an uptick in new business during the third quarter, a time when most mortgage production indicators were losing momentum. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized a total of $58.18 billion of single-family loans that were insured by private MIs during the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level detail. That was up 3.7 percent from the second quarter at a time when total production by the two government-sponsored enterprises declined by 15.6 percent. Private MI-insured loans accounted...[Includes two data charts]

FHA automation, delegated underwriting and lenders’ willingness to assume the liability risk for quality control allowed FHA lending to proceed with little disruption during the 16-day government shutdown that ended this week. Lenders said they expected no disruption in the origination or closing of FHA loans provided the shutdown did not drag on for an extended period. Individual FHA borrowers with loans in process that required specific actions by FHA staff experienced some delay. Lenders, like Wells Fargo, worked with those customers on a case-by-case basis to ...

SunTrust Banks has agreed in principle with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice to settle certain FHA-related claims. Separately, a federal judge in Texas refused to dismiss a government suit against two FHA lenders accused of manipulating HUD into insuring poorly underwritten loans which later resulted in massive losses to the agency. Announced on Oct. 10, SunTrust’s agreement with the government agencies is part of a broader resolution of certain legacy matters and repurchase agreements with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. SunTrust has agreed to settle certain ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposed “qualified mortgage” rule attaches certain conditions to QM treatment that may complicate matters for participating lenders, said attorneys with K&L Gates in Washington, DC. On Sept. 30, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published its own proposed QM rule for FHA loans. The CFPB rule takes effect on Jan. 14, 2014, and will apply to FHA loans until HUD issues a final rule. Under the CFPB rule, many FHA loans would not qualify for the rule’s safe harbor because the higher mortgage insurance premiums would make them “higher priced mortgage loans.” Thus, in order to ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a putative class action alleging that a lender improperly required FHA borrowers to buy and maintain higher flood insurance coverage than that indicated in their mortgage contracts. According to an analysis by the Washington law firm BuckleySandler, the ruling from an equally divided en banc court allows mortgage lenders to require borrowers to maintain flood insurance equal to the replacement value of their homes. In Kolbe v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP, No. 11-2030, 2013 WL 5394192 (1st Cir. Sept. 27, 2013), plaintiff Stanley Kolbe contends ...

Two surviving spouses of deceased reverse mortgage borrowers won their case against the Department of Housing and Urban Development after a U.S. court found HUD in violation of federal law for failing to protect the spouses from foreclosure. The court’s decision marks a turning point for surviving spouses, such as Robert Bennett of Annapolis, MD, and Leila Joseph of Brooklyn, NY, and ensures that they will be protected against eviction and foreclosure, despite the loss of their husband or wife, said Jean Constantine-Davis, a senior attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation. In March 2011, the AARP and the law firm of Mehri & Skalet of Washington, DC, filed ...

FHA loan originations declined by 10.5 percent in August from July, following a downward trend that seems to suggest that private mortgage insurance companies are gaining the upper hand against their biggest government-backed competitor. Volume dropped to $16.8 billion in August from $18.8 billion in July, and from $22.1 billion a year ago, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of FHA data. Purchase-mortgage originations comprised 68.7 percent of FHA business for the month as rising interest rates slowed refinancing activity. Despite the increase in purchase lending, FHA lenders noted it was ... [1 chart]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inadequate response and poor implementation of corrective actions recommended by its own inspector general did little to stop claim files from squeezing through without reviews. HUD’s Office of the Inspector General urged Charles Coulter, deputy assistant secretary for single-family housing, to go back and implement the IG’s recommendations properly. The process HUD said it had implemented had failed to select all FHA loans that met review criteria, resulting in more than ...