The Federal Communications Commission recently promulgated final rules that restrict how companies can attempt to collect on delinquent agency mortgages, federal student loans and other debts owed to the federal government, including through the use of so-called robocalls. The new rules limit the number of robocalls to wireless numbers, including text messages, to three per month. The new rules also only allow robocalls concerning debts that are delinquent or at imminent risk of default, unless there is prior express consent otherwise. The new rules require that, absent consent, callers only call the individual who owes the debt, not his or her family or friends. This includes limiting the number of robocalls allowed to reassigned numbers. The new rules reiterate that ...
New legal requirements enacted in the state of New York in the wake of the financial crisis pose particular compliance challenges for mortgage servicers, according to a new report by analysts at S&P Global Ratings. The S&P team recently reviewed a series of laws the state legislature passed in June that attempts to address several issues related to “zombie” foreclosures, which refers to the phenomenon of a servicer initiating foreclosure on a vacant property but not going so far as to actually take title. Urban community activists complain such properties languish unsold for a prolonged period of time, contributing to neighborhood blight in communities least able to handle it – hence, state lawmakers decided to act.One resulting requirement “imposes conditions ...
Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to load up on residential MBS during the second quarter of 2016, pushing their investment in the sector to a new high, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Banks and thrifts reported MBS holdings of $1.684 trillion as of the end of June, a 1.4 percent increase since the previous quarter. These are long-term holdings in banks’ held-to-maturity and available-for-sale portfolios. The industry held another $46.02 billion of MBS in their trading accounts. Not surprisingly, all of the gain came in agency MBS, particularly pass-through securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The industry’s aggregate holdings of these securities, $867.64 billion, were up 4.1 percent from the ...
Fannie Mae has re-claimed some lost market share in the prized first-time homebuyer market during the first half of 2016, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking. Fannie securitized $41.70 billion of first-time buyer purchase loans in the first six months of this year. That represented 28.4 percent of the total FTHB business securitized by the three agencies, up from 27.8 percent for all of last year. Freddie Mac, however, is still playing catch-up. The GSE accounted for 17.0 percent of the agency FTHB market, compared to 17.8 percent in 2015. The top securitizer of first-timer loans remained Ginnie Mae, with a 54.6 percent share of the sector.
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