The Trump administration should make the capital framework, pricing and underwriting standards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more transparent and available to the public, according to the U.S. Mortgage Insurers, a trade group representing five of six private MIs.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has asked the Office of Management and Budget to review a draft final rule that would establish major requirements for guaranteed cash-out refinance loans. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which reformed the Dodd-Frank Act, gave VA the authority to regulate cash-out refis. The agency has 180 days from enactment to promulgate regulations. The final rule sets the parameters of VA cash-out home loans, to include defining net tangible benefit, recoupment and seasoning requirements. The Dodd-Frank reform act and Ginnie Mae have established similar requirements for Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. IRRRLs and, to a much lesser extent, cash-out refis came under scrutiny due to loan churning or serial refinancing. Last year, a small group of lenders targeted servicemembers and veterans with VA loans to ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin a new rulemaking on qualified mortgages to conform to Dodd-Frank reform act mandates. Observers say the move is simply housekeeping, since the previous QM interim final rule (IFR) requirements were rendered moot with the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act back in May. The new law, also known as the Dodd-Frank reform act, superseded the previous rule’s seasoning and recoupment requirements for VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. Specifically, the act removed the category of rebuttable presumption for IRRRLs deemed as QM under the interim final rule. It also imposed new requirements that were not considered at the time the IFR was issued. The VA did not say whether changes were made ...

California ranked as the top state for primary mortgage insurance business in the third quarter of 2018, but not by as big a margin as its high housing costs might suggest. [Includes one data chart.]

Private mortgage insurers appeared to gain market share in the third quarter of 2018 as purchase-mortgage lending surged in the agency market, according to an exclusive ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. [Includes three data charts]

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee next week is expected to push officials from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency on controversial pilot programs that have drawn the ire of certain industry factions.

The reverse mortgage industry is supporting an FHA move to require a second appraisal for certain Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. FHA did not seek public comment on the interim policy change, which subjects all HECM loans, effective Oct. 1, to a collateral risk assessment to ensure the appraisal of the property is not inflated. The new policy has wide support in the reverse mortgage industry. A study conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last year found that 37 percent of appraisals on approximately 134,000 HECMs tested positive for over-valuation. The inflated HECM appraisals were at least 3 percent higher than estimates by FHA’s proprietary automated valuation model, according to FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery. The same study also found that higher-than-expected losses in the HECM program could be attributed in part to ...

Use of FHA downpayment assistance from programs run by entities owned by Native American tribes may soon be under agency scrutiny. Industry stakeholders are pointing to a pre-rule notice the Department of Housing and Urban Development published last spring as an opportunity for HUD to clarify the use of downpayment assistance from parties other than those currently allowed to meet FHA’s 3.5 percent downpayment requirement. In an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, HUD is seeking comment on the use of downpayment assistance as well as their approved sources, such as tribal providers, state and local housing finance agencies, government agents and non-profit organizations. One downpayment-assistance provider is the Chenoa Fund Loan Program, which is owned and operated by the Utah Cedar Band of Paiutes. The fund provides secondary financing to ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s failure to record indemnifications under a 2015 settlement agreement exposed the FHA insurance fund to potential losses of more than $47.4 million, according to an internal audit report. HUD’s Office of the Inspector General performed the audit to resolve issues related to two settlement agreements entered into by Fifth Third Bank and the Department of Justice. Fifth Third, a direct endorsement lender, had voluntarily disclosed to HUD 1,439 materially defective FHA loans that were originated between 2003 and 2013. HUD paid claims on 519 of those flawed loans, which generated more than $84.9 million in ineligible claims. In addition, FTB agreed to indemnify HUD for all losses for the remaining 920 FHA-insured mortgage loans. In January 2017, the bank voluntarily disclosed an additional 381 materially defective FHA loans. A HUD review of the ...

FHA Issues Waiver of Property Inspections in Disaster-Stricken California Counties. FHA has issued a waiver of its timing policy for completing property inspections prior to closing or endorsing a loan for FHA insurance. The waiver is in effect in presidentially declared major disaster areas in Lake and Shasta Counties, CA, that were ravaged by wildfires and high winds. FHA believes that the wildfires and high winds have stabilized so as not to cause any further damage to properties, even though FEMA has not declared “all clear” in the affected areas. The waiver allows damage inspections to be completed after Oct. 2, for properties located in the PDMDA. NC Commissioner of Banks Amends State Reverse Mortgage Rules. The North Carolina Commissioner of Banks recently amended its ...