A U.S. Senator’s call for a Department of Justice investigation into whether Lender Processing Services used an improper fee structure to double-bill underwater homeowners for servicing fees related to processing foreclosures and bankruptcies is off the mark and old business, say industry observers. In a letter sent last week to Attorney General Eric Holder, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, cited concerns brought to his attention by an industry professional that Jacksonville, FL-based LPS engineered a scheme to charge homeowners or mortgage investors for foreclosure-related legal services provided by the company’s preferred network of law firms. Banks using LPS network law firms would receive free access to the firm’s mortgage-processing software, according to the letter. “The ramifications of this case, however, seem...

The U.S. Supreme Court last week unanimously decided a securities fraud case that could cause the Securities and Exchange Commission to act sooner rather than later in bringing enforcement actions against MBS fraud. In Gabelli et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, SCOTUS ruled that in an SEC action to recover civil penalties, the five-year statute of limitations begins ticking when the fraud occurs, not when it is discovered. Reversing an opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, SCOTUS rejected...

H.R. 450: The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Accountability Act, introduced by Rep. Bill Posey, R-FL, would amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to bring the CFPB into the regular appropriations process. The bill is a re-introduction of H.R. 1640 from the 112th Congress. Current status: referred to House Financial Services Committee. S. 190: The Restoring the Constitutional Balance of Power Act of 2013, introduced by Sen. Mike Johanns, R-NE, would prohibit the transfer of funds from the Federal Reserve that would be used by the CFPB “to carry out activities that are authorized...

An FHA risk-sharing proposal that almost got off the ground in the early 1990s has sparked lawmakers’ interest during a recent Senate hearing as one way to reduce FHA losses and taxpayer risk exposure while allowing private capital to reenter the market. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on FHA reforms, Teresa Bryce Bazemore, president of Radian Guaranty, urged lawmakers to authorize the FHA to enter into risk-sharing arrangements with private mortgage insurers. Bazemore said the proposal is intended to prevent future FHA borrowers from ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it will share information soon on the estimated impact of mandatory, across-the-board spending cuts on HUD/FHA programs and their recipients. A HUD spokesman declined to put a sequestration tag on all affected programs, including FHA, saying details would be available as soon as the department notifies all HUD funding recipients of automatic spending cuts that went into effect last week. The mandatory cuts to defense and discretionary spending kicked in after Congress failed to enact a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, as required by ...

Expressing its views and estimates for the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, the House Financial Services Committee remains concerned that the FHA has not fully exercised its powers to protect its mortgage insurance fund and urged the agency to begin charging additional user fees to strengthen its financial footing. Apparently, there is a hitch in that proposal. It seems the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not charge user fees and to do so would probably need clear authorization from Congress, said a HUD spokesman. It is not clear what the committee meant by ...

The reverse mortgage lending industry has asked Senate lawmakers to expand the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s authority to strengthen its oversight of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs recently, Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, said it is crucial for HUD to be able to act swiftly to reduce the risk the program poses to the FHA insurance fund. Bell said HUD needs to implement changes “in a matter of months, not years” and for that to happen, it would need authority from Congress to ...

The FHA’s efforts at underwriting reform and reducing its footprint to give way to private capital are nothing but an illusion of reform, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Raising the annual mortgage insurance premium and the required downpayment for FHA-insured loans greater than $625,500 as well as tightening the underwriting on loans with credit scores of 620 or below would impact only a tiny percentage of FHA business, said Edward Pinto, a resident fellow at AEI. “These changes make great sound bites but clearly this is the illusion of reform,” he said. Both measures are part of FHA’s latest efforts to ...

Congress has expressed interest in an industry proposal for new shared-risk arrangements involving private mortgage insurers and the FHA to cut the government’s exposure to losses and help protect future FHA borrowers from getting into loans they cannot afford. The proposal was presented in separate testimonies during recent House and Senate committee hearings on FHA solvency and the need for reforms to strengthen and protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and avoid any potential bailout by taxpayers. In a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Teresa Bryce Bazemore, president of Radian Guaranty, urged...

A federal appeals court last week revived a previously dismissed class-action lawsuit against four financial institutions brought by investors that purchased a $1.32 billion offering of MBS that later turned sour. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case two years ago against the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Deutsche Bank AG, Wells Fargo Advisors and NovaStar Mortgage. The New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund was lead plaintiff. In 2007, the New Jersey fund sued...