Ginnie Mae this week announced the full automation of Platinum securities processing and issuance – a key step in modernizing the agency’s outdated technology and infrastructure. Automation went into effect in mid-July and nearly $1 billion of the Platinum pools have been processed through the MyGinnieMae portal, the agency said in a statement. MyGinnieMae is a self-servicing portal that connects users and enables collaboration and the sharing of organizational knowledge, the agency explained. The year-to-date volume for Platinum mortgage-backed securities is $6.1 billion. Ginnie’s Multiclass Securities Program allows participating issuers to pool some of their MBS into a single Platinum trust, which issues securities based on the pool. A Platinum security is designed to improve liquidity of Ginnie MBS through trades or use in structured finance and repurchase transactions. Previously, Platinum products were ...

The private mortgage insurance industry urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week to consider including the qualified-mortgage standards of the FHA, VA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its assessment of the ability-to-repay/QM rule. In a comment letter, industry trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers said it would be impossible to perform a full assessment of the ATR/QM rule without considering the different federal agency QM rules. If it does not expand the scope of its assessment, the CFPB should at least consider the impact the rules have on consumers in relation to the agency QM rules. In May, the CFPB notified stakeholders of its plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATR/QM rule in terms of its benefits and costs. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which established new standards for mortgage lending, including requiring lenders to assess consumers’ ability to repay. The statute also established a class of “qualified mortgage” loans that cannot have certain risky product features and are presumed to comply with the ATR requirement.

NewLeaf Wholesale has announced Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) guidelines for its FHA and VA mortgage products. PACE financing allows homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy-efficient. The homeowner pays the loan as part of their property tax bill. In some states, PACE liens have superior status over all other liens, including a mortgage loan. A PACE assessment is a debt of property, where the obligation is tied to the property as opposed to the property owner. Hence, when the property is sold the new owner assumes the PACE lien. Last year, the FHA and VA issued guidance for approving purchase and refinance of mortgaged properties with PACE liens provided certain requirements are met. One requirement is that past due PACE loan amounts retain a first-lien position and this has raised some concern among industry groups that are opposed to ...

A property management contractor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has agreed to pay $4.3 million to resolve allegations that it billed the agency for FHA-related work it did not perform in violation of the federal False Claims Act. Cityside Management Corp. of Manchester, NH, allegedly failed to inspect the work of third-party vendors that it hired to perform termite inspections, treatments and repairs on repossessed houses in HUD’s real estate-owned inventory, as required by its contract with HUD. HUD’s inspector general investigated the case and referred it to the Department of Justice. Following the financial crisis, HUD held title to a large number of foreclosed homes acquired by borrowers with FHA financing. HUD contracted with various field service managers, including Cityside, to prepare the REO properties for resale. According to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking public comment as well as approval from the Office of Management and Budget for a number of new or expired data collections relating to key FHA programs and issues. Out for a 30-day comment period are proposed data collections relating to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, condominium project approval, claims and conveyance, and property inspection and preservation. Specifically, HUD has asked OMB to reinstate currently approved information collection, which is necessary to screen HECM applications to protect the FHA insurance fund, consumers and taxpayers. HUD also wants OMB approval to extend the forms used to determine the eligibility of borrowers and mortgage transactions for FHA insurance. In addition, HUD’s HECM counseling form was revised to include a property address line for purchase transactions and ...

The Senate Committee on Appropriations last week unanimously approved legislation setting aside $40.2 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development for fiscal 2018. The Senate HUD appropriations bill passed by a vote of 31-0 and, like the House version, did not include authority for HUD to charge a fee to cover FHA’s administrative costs and systems upgrades as proposed in the Trump administration’s budget request. Rather, both bills set aside $130 million for administrative expenses with the House adding another $5 million for technological improvements. In addition, the committee recommended...

House Democrats are trying to persuade Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to reinstate a 25-basis-point FHA mortgage insurance premium cut scheduled under the Obama administration, citing continuing improvement of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. In a letter to Carson last week, 21 Democrats led by Rep. Joyce Beatty, OH, called upon the secretary to place homeownership within the reach of families, especially millennials and minorities, by lowering the FHA annual MIP rates to the same level that was announced during the waning days of the Obama administration. On Jan. 9, 2017, encouraged by the strong recovery of the MMI Fund, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro announced...

The VA home loan guaranty program continued to grow faster than the FHA program during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new analysis and servicer ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. At the end of June, Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pools included $548.04 billion of VA loans, a 3.3 percent increase over the previous quarter. Compared to a year ago, the volume of VA loans was up a hefty 15.6 percent. The $1.055 trillion of FHA loans in outstanding Ginnie MBS was still nearly twice the volume of VA loans. But the FHA total was up a more subdued 1.8 percent from March and by 5.4 percent from a year ago. One reason the VA market grows somewhat faster than the FHA is that it loses fewer loans to default. For starters, the VA delinquency rate is lower – 3.03 percent in the second quarter of 2017 vs. 5.52 percent for FHA. Over the past three and a half years, the ... [ Charts]

The House Appropriations Committee this week approved a FY 2018 spending bill for the Department of Housing and Urban Development with a $135 million allocation for information technology upgrades in lieu of a proposed lender fee. The set-aside also covers quality control and risk management improvements as well as other administrative costs. The recommended funding is $5 million more than the FY 2017 enacted level for administrative contract expenses and $25 million below the budget request. Approved by a vote of 31 to 20, the bill provides HUD with $38.3 billion in discretionary spending for FY 2018, down $487 million from the current level. The House bill authorizes $400 billion for loan guarantees under the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, including the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, and $500 billion for Ginnie Mae. Ginnie will also receive $25.4 million for agency staffing, which is ...

An internal watchdog audit alleges that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been auctioning distressed notes to investors with no formal guidance or procedures in place. In a recent audit report, the HUD Office of the Inspector General said the department did not conduct rulemaking or develop standards for its single-family note sales program. The IG said it performed the audit due to the large amount of FHA claims paid on note sales as well as public concerns over the creation and administration of the program. In addition, the IG has never audited the program. In 2002, HUD referred to the initial note sales program as the Accelerated Claims Disposition Demonstration Program. The department later renamed it the Loan Sales Program, and subsequently to its current name: Distressed Asset Stabilization Program. DASP accepts assignment of eligible, defaulted single-family mortgage loans in ...