The antiquated backbone of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program will soon be history with the official launch of HERMIT on Oct. 9. HERMIT, or the Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology, is a second generation, web-based automated system, designed to improve the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s ability to track and monitor its HECM portfolio in real time. The system also automates the payments of insurance claims while increasing efficiency and mitigating risks to the FHA insurance fund. HERMIT consists of a servicing module and an accounting module to ...

Fixed-rate mortgages comprised most of August’s FHA production, which totaled $22.1 billion, up 13.2 percent from July and 37.9 percent from a year ago, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. FRMs accounted for 98.9 percent of new loans with FHA insurance in August. In-house originations made up 79.6 percent of new endorsements while purchase loans accounted for 56.1 percent of FHA originations during the month. Wells Fargo is the only top FHA lender to exceed the billion-dollar mark. In fact, the bank reported $2.2 billion in new FHA originations, 76.0 percent of which were produced in-house. The purchase mortgage share of Well’s total FHA originations was ... [2 charts]

The FHA Short Sale program may have cost the Department of Housing and Urban Development more than $1 billion in ineligible claims but only a portion may actually be recovered, according to a report from HUD’s Office of the Inspector General. A HUD OIG audit estimated that the department paid $1.06 billion in claims for 11,693 preforeclosure sales that did not meet FHA’s criteria for participation in the program. The OIG said it began a nationwide review of the short sale program after finding significant deficiencies in borrower qualifications during an audit of CitiMortgage’s preforeclosure sale claims last year. Auditors found ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pushing full-speed ahead with its probe of the mortgage industry’s use of captive reinsurance by directing PHH Corp. to comply with an earlier civil investigative demand – the functional equivalent of a subpoena – within three weeks, brushing aside the company’s numerous objections. “PHH’s petition to modify or set aside the CID in this matter is denied,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray ruled last week. “Within 21 days of this decision and order, PHH is directed to produce all responsive documents, items and information within its possession, custody or control that are covered by the CID.” Cordray added that PHH is...

Old Republic International Corp. is seeking state regulators’ approval of a revised run-off plan for its mortgage guaranty unit, Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., which proposes to pay 60 percent of all settled mortgage-insurance claims, up from 50 percent, and defer the remaining 40 percent until claim reserves are sufficient to pay the balance in full. The North Carolina Department of Insurance, RMIC’s primary regulator, is reviewing the so-called 60-40 corrective plan, which ORIC wants to remain in place at least through Dec. 31, 2021, while RMIC continues to operate under supervision of state regulators. The plan is designed...

The House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly approved legislation that would help the FHA remain solvent and avoid a potential taxpayer bailout. Lawmakers passed the FHA Fiscal Solvency Act of 2012 by a vote of 402-7 on the heels of a Department of Housing and Urban Development report to Congress showing a slight second-quarter decline in the single-family Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The report, which provides a quarterly view of the composition and credit quality of new insurance, showed FHA capital decreasing slightly over the last quarter from $32.3 billion to $31.6 billion. FHA’s total capital is ...

Cash flow from FHA’s business operations funded almost 70 percent of net claims losses over the last year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s quarterly report on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund programs. HUD paid $5.4 billion in claims in the second quarter of 2012, more than twice the amount of premiums collected during the period. As a result, net cash flows from business operations were negative $1.7 billion during the quarter. Premium collections contributed $8.1 billion over the last four quarters even as paid claims totaled $17.2 billion over the same period. This indicates that ...

The reverse mortgage industry is at odds with consumer advocates and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau over a recent CFPB study, which claimed that consumers find reverse mortgages too complex and difficult to understand and that the risk of fraud and other scams persist. The latest dispute flared as reverse mortgage lenders and consumer groups responded to the CFPB’s request for information on abusive financial practices that affect elderly Americans. The comment period ended on Aug. 31. To assist its ongoing study of reverse mortgage transactions, the CFPB in July sought ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s disciplinary arm hit 14 FHA-approved lenders with civil money penalties totaling $2.31 million for various violations of FHA regulations. HUD’s Mortgagee Review Board imposed the fines as a result of separate administrative actions against the lenders from Aug. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2011. The MRB report, which was published in the Sept. 10 Federal Register, cited various offenses, including improper lending practices, failure to follow FHA origination guidelines, fraudulent reporting, failure to remit mortgage insurance premiums, failure to report ...

SunTrust Banks, Inc. is planning to shift $3 billion of loans, including an undetermined number of delinquent Ginnie Mae loans and other nonperforming loans, to its held-for-sale portfolio and record a $375 million provision for mortgage repurchases in the third quarter of 2012. The moves are expected to strengthen SunTrust’s mortgage portfolio and put the company in a better position by improving its risk profile and balance sheet and stabilizing its capital ratios. The $3 billion transfer of loans to the held-for-sale (HFS) category will include ... (1 chart)