The Appraisal Foundation suggested this week that “alternative valuation products” likely will not comply with professional appraisal standards in most cases. If an AVP requires the same development and reporting requirements as an appraisal, the Appraisal Foundation said in a white paper, why would the industry create the AVP in the first place? The foundation noted that the Appraisal Standards Board does not deem any alternative valuation product or form as compliant with the industry’s ...

Nearly three-fourths of mortgages in Bank of America’s foreclosure review pipeline are on hold due to various regulatory and process delays, according to a new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. The delays have caused foreclosures at the bank to last sometimes up to a year longer, on average, than foreclosure timelines for Freddie Mac. As of the end of August, Moody’s said BofA had 115,000 loans scheduled for foreclosure review. “Over 72 percent of the population was non-workable inventory because of ...

The “public voice” of the Federal Home Loan Bank system is calling on policymakers to remember the 12 regional banks as proposals are considered to restructure the nation’s housing finance system. A recently issued one-page “position paper” by the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks lists a set of nine positions the 12 have collectively adopted to remind official Washington that the system has “operated prudently and served as a mechanism for economic stability” for more than 80 years.

GSEs Issue Government Shutdown Guidance. Freddie Mac this week followed Fannie Mae in issuing new, temporary guidelines to servicers and sellers of single-family mortgages as the nation began its second week of the government shutdown. The GSEs have temporarily revised their selling guidelines to permit lenders to verify Social Security and IRS transcripts after the closing but before the delivery date of the loan.“Servicers can offer unemployment forbearance to borrowers that have a financial hardship as a result of the shutdown and must suspend credit reporting for those borrowers,” said Fannie.

Over the past year, some lenders have complained privately about the presence of enforcement attorneys during examinations, telling Inside Mortgage Finance that it can be intimidating to staff.

Peters Sack of Credit Suisse said the bank portfolio bid is currently much stronger than the economics for issuing jumbo MBS.

As usual, the Federal Housing Finance Agency provided as little detail as possible in its new disclosures on the common securitization platform.

PHH is the latest top ten-ranked residential lender to unveil mortgage layoffs. The workers were given 60-days notice.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America rank first and second, respectively, among bank home equity lenders, according to exclusive rankings from Inside Mortgage Finance.

In light of the court decision in the overtime pay case, the government must either appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or start a formal rulemaking process to withdraw the 2006 opinion.