Buyer Agents Report Delays in Closing, Thanks to TRID. One month into the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, some real estate closings are already being affected, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. The survey went out to brokers across the U.S. and nearly 20 percent said they are already seeing issues, mostly delays in closing. According to one respondent, “Lenders are almost all asking for 45 days to closing versus the previous 30 days.” Another respondent stated, “We’ve been advised to prepare for further delays until everyone has more experience with the new CFPB/TRID regulations.” “At NAEBA, we applaud the CFPB for its efforts ...

Facing the possibility of a potential False Claims Act lawsuit, PHH Corp. is reconsidering its participation in the FHA mortgage insurance program. Though PHH’s FHA segment represents only 3 percent of its mortgage volume over the past 12 months, the company will proceed cautiously as it evaluates the risk-adjusted return of FHA products and programs, said Glenn Messina, PHH president and chief executive.Ranked 50th among FHA lenders as of June 30, 2015, PHH expects more regulatory challenges in 2016 as well as rising compliance costs, said Messina during a third-quarter earnings call. In its latest quarterly filing, PHH disclosed receiving a subpoena from the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for documents related to, among other things, FHA loan origination and underwriting practices. Like several other FHA lenders, PHH is ...

The Federal Home Loan Bank System is seeking to boost its share of government-backed lending and the Ginnie Mae market with a new servicing-release option for FHA, VA and rural housing mortgages that are sold into the Mortgage Partnership Finance program. The new feature adds to an existing servicing-retained execution in the MPF Government Mortgage-Backed Securities program. The current servicing-retained component requires participating lenders to service loans they originate and sell into the MPF conduit. The servicing-release option from Nationstar Mortgage, a top-10 mortgage servicer based in Dallas, will provide lenders with greater pricing flexibility so they can become more competitive in the communities they serve, said Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLB. Only FHLBank members that are participants in MPF can use the government MBS program. In order to ...

The population of young veterans in the U.S. military could surge to one million over the next five years and likely lead to a boom in VA loan originations, according to a new Deutsche Bank analysis. Citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the analysts said there are an estimated 21.8 million veterans residing in the U.S and that number has held steady since 2013. The analysts further observed a shrinking in the mortality rate of veterans as more troops returned home from overseas in recent years. That contention is supported by the fact that the number of young vets has risen while the older 35- to 64-year-old bucket has shrunk, the analysts said. “The population of younger veterans is expected to continue growing,” they predicted. “This means the number of prospective new homebuyers taking out a VA loan is likely to increase.” As of 2014, there were roughly ...

FHA to Unveil FY 2015 MMIF Audit Results. On Nov. 16, the FHA will release its 2015 annual report to Congress, a document that historically has included the results of the annual actuarial audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, or MMIF. Early in the day, Ed Golding, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Housing, is scheduled to brief reporters on the report and take questions. As reported by Inside FHA/VA Lending, the reduction in the annual mortgage insurance premium earlier this year has put the MMIF on an accelerated path to recovery. But whether the ensuing increase in FHA production – which translates into additional premiums – will be enough to get the fund back to its statutory 2 percent capital reserve ratio remains ...

The hedging results of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – including instruments bought to protect the value of agency MBS – had different results in the third quarter as interest rates unexpectedly declined and stayed low for several weeks. Overall, Fannie booked $2.6 billion of negative charges against the value of its derivatives in the third quarter while Freddie booked a much larger charge on its hedging activities: $4.2 billion. The differential did not pass...

The authors want the Treasury Department to end the quarterly profit sweep and allow Fannie and Freddie to raise about $100 billion in additional capital through several rounds of new common stock sales...

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recently filed an amicus brief in support of the defendants to reverse a case in which the Federal Housing Finance Agency argued that Nomura Holdings sold shoddy MBS to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the case of FHFA vs. Nomura Holdings, a judge ruled in May, after a three-week bench trial, that Nomura and RBS Securities were liable for the claims brought by the FHFA and knowingly sold bad MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises before the 2008 financial crisis. The MBS were backed by mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of about $2.05 billion at the time of purchase. Nomura appealed...

The Federal Home Loan Banks appear to be eyeing a bigger share of the government-backed lending market with the announcement of a new servicing-release option for FHA, VA and rural housing loans sold into the Mortgage Partnership Finance program. The addition of a servicing-released option from Nationstar Mortgage, a top-10 mortgage servicer, to an already existing servicing-retained execution will give participating lenders greater flexibility in pricing and selling government-backed mortgages they have originated into the secondary market, said Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLB. Previously, program participants were required...

Federal regulators late last month rejected industry requests that swap agreements entered into by securitization vehicles be exempt from new capital and margin requirements. The three federal banking regulators, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, finalized a rule that requires covered swap entities to collect and post initial margin to counterparties that are swap entities or financial end users with material swaps exposure of $8 billion or more. The Structured Finance Industry Group had argued...