The private-sector watchdog established by Congress to examine auditing firms recently found a number of mortgage-related issues with two major auditors. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board raised concerns about the mortgage-repurchase reserves that KPMG signed off on and about fair value measurements allowed by Grant Thornton. The PCAOB reviewed 52 audits completed by KPMG in 2011 and found that the auditor failed to sufficiently test a mortgage-backed security issuer’s ...

Unreasonably tight mortgage lending standards, fueled by lenders’ and regulators’ extreme distaste for risk, are dampening home sales and some flexibility is needed to drive home sales and job creation, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors. The survey analyzed credit scores and loan performance for both conventional conforming and FHA-VA loans and suggested returning to reasonably safe and sound lending standards to give home sales a much-needed jolt. Existing home sales should ...

United Shore Financial Services in Birmingham, MI, is on course to a record-breaking $7 billion in residential mortgage originations in 2012, thanks to a robust wholesale lending operation and excellent relationships with mortgage brokers. Great customer service, a strong broker-support system, capable and efficient technology and strong management are the big factors for United Shore’s rapid growth, said Mat Ishbia, president of United Wholesale Mortgage, USFS’s wholesale arm. United Shore originates loans ...

Increasing regulatory pressures and ongoing buyback exposure and legal liability is prompting a number of warehouse banks and mortgage lenders to start using outside companies to vet some of their third-party service providers such as settlement agents. Sources say settlement agents are being charged fees to provide certain business information and undergo background checks and credential verifications to become approved; otherwise, they will not be able to close loans for these entities going forward ...

Servicers take lower losses and area home prices take less of a hit when real estate owned properties are quickly liquidated, according to new research by analysts at the Federal Reserve and Fannie Mae. “Our results suggest that the key to minimizing the costs of foreclosure is to minimize the time that properties spend in serious delinquency and in REO,” the authors said in “Foreclosure Externalities: Some New Evidence,” a working paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac late last week announced another round of changes in the Home Affordable Refinance Program for underwater borrowers, including more liberal repurchase standards that some say may spur lenders to refinance other servicers’ loans. For HARP loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises on or after Jan. 1, 2013, repurchase risk will be lowered if the borrower stays current in the loan for 12 months. Under a revised repurchase policy announced last week, representation and warranty risk will be eased for non-HARP loans that stay current for 36 months. Effectively immediately, the government-sponsored enterprises reduced...

Lender-related underwriting and disclosure issues have prompted a significant increase in liability for non-agency mortgage-backed security issuers, based on a court ruling last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that liability extends beyond trusts specifically purchased by investors to potentially all trusts in an issuer’s shelf with mortgages originated by the same lenders. “Investors may now seek to intervene to broaden classes in MBS class actions that don’t explicitly ...

Two Harbors Investment Corp. announced this week that it plans to contribute the real estate owned properties it started acquiring this year to a new affiliated company, Silver Bay Realty Trust. The new company is seeking up to $287.5 million from an initial public offering announced this week and plans to operate as a real estate investment trust. The move from Two Harbors, also a REIT, is somewhat abrupt as the company only started acquiring REO properties to offer for rent in the first quarter of 2012 ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the National Credit Union Administration recently filed separate lawsuits seeking repurchases of mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The FHFA lawsuit filed in August against DB Structured Products relates to ACE Securities Corp. Home Equity Loan Trust, Series 2006-FM1, which Freddie Mac purchased in August 2006. The FHFA did not disclose the size of Freddie’s investment. And last week the NCUA filed a lawsuit against UBS Securities ... [Includes three briefs]

Cash flow from FHA’s business operations funded almost 70 percent of net claims losses over the last year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s quarterly report on the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund programs. HUD paid $5.4 billion in claims in the second quarter of 2012, more than twice the amount of premiums collected during the period. As a result, net cash flows from business operations were negative $1.7 billion during the quarter. Premium collections contributed $8.1 billion over the last four quarters even as paid claims totaled $17.2 billion over the same period. This indicates that ...