Bipartisan legislation was introduced recently in the House to addresse problems arising from the use of the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act in the context of mortgage insurance claims. Co-sponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, and Lee Zeldin, R-NY, the bill would provide certain restrictions and clarifications on false claims and civil actions related to loans with FHA, VA or U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee. H.R. 5993, the Fixing Access to Credit Act of 2018, has been sent to the House Financial Services Committee and to the House Committee on the Judiciary. A Civil War statute, FCA seeks to deter fraud against the government by providing hefty penalties for violations and establishing a 10-year statute of limitations to file civil claims. Enacted in the wake of the savings and loan debacle in the 1980s, FIRREA outlawed abusive lending and ...
A pending change to accounting standards could change the way banks price jumbo mortgages, according to industry analysts. Beginning in 2020, many banks will have to change their accounting methods to include a “current expected credit loss model.” The adoption timeline was recently set by federal banking regulators. The CECL model forces banks to make projections for lifetime losses on loans they hold and potentially increase reserves relating to the projected losses ...
Reverse mortgage lenders started out strong in the first three month of 2018 with a 19.2 percent increase in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production from the previous period. HECM endorsements totaled $5.4 billion in the first quarter, with purchase reverse loans accounting for the bulk of originations, 81.9 percent. First quarter production was up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.97 billion for the quarter, down from $3.25 billion in the prior quarter, Ginnie Mae data showed. The top five HECM originators in sequential order – American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Funding, One Reverse Mortgage, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and Synergy One Lending – accounted for $1.66 billion, or 30.8 percent, of total production during the first quarter. American Advisors maintained its top ranking with $841.4 million of HECM loans, which ... [Charts]
Issuance of mortgage securities backed by USDA loans dropped during the first three months of 2018. Approximately $4.03 billion of rural housing loans with a USDA guarantee were delivered in Ginnie Mae MBS during the first quarter, down 18.3 percent from the previous quarter. Agency data also showed an 11.7 percent decline in USDA securitization volume from the same period a year ago. Rural housing loans accounted for 1.5 percent of all loans securitized in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae pools and 2.8 percent of loans with private or government-backed mortgage insurance. Purchase loans comprised the bulk of USDA loans that were delivered into Ginnie MBS pools. PennyMac knocked Freedom Mortgage out of first place with a total of $753.3 million in securitized USDA loans despite a 10.4 percent decline in production. Freedom Mortgage accounted for $523.3 million of USDA loans pooled in ... [Charts]
When trouble hits, a mortgage lender has two main choices: sell the company’s assets or hand over the office keys to the landlord and tell your employees the ugly truth.
Despite heralding the investment made by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Guaranteed Rate will not say how much the PE firm invested or how large of a stake it acquired…