There may be plenty of uncertainty about the direction of the CFPB these days, given that Republicans are calling the shots on Capitol Hill and at the White House, plus the fact that Richard Cordray’s days as director of the bureau are numbered, regardless of when he actually ends up departing. Still, mortgage servicers can continue to expect robust supervision and regulation – and enforcement –if not from the bureau, then from another federal regulator, as well the states, and maybe all of the above, according to Steven Frie and Mark Shannon, top servicer analysts at S&P Global Ratings. “It’s been pretty common knowledge that the CFPB has been very active in regards to regulating the mortgage servicing industry,” Frie said ...

Cordray Takes to the NYT to Defend CFPB Arbitration Rule. CFPB Director Richard Cordray took to the opinion page of The New York Times last week to make a public plea in support of the CFPB’s controversial arbitration rule. Cordray cited claims by opponents of the rule that plaintiffs make out better financially by acting individually instead of acting collectively in a group lawsuit. “This claim is not supported by facts or common sense. Our study contained revealing data on the results of group lawsuits and individual actions,” he said. “We found that group lawsuits get more money back to more people. In five years of group lawsuits, we tallied an average of $220 million paid to 6.8 million consumers ...

The vast majority of Fannie buyback activity involves loans sold into MBS issued since 2015…

Pollock criticized the Treasury Department’s decision to pay off $13.5 billion of subordinate GSE debt at the start of the conservatorships nine years ago...

A spokeswoman for Fannie said, “While the situation on the ground remains uncertain, areas impacted are subject to change…”

New CIO for Freddie. Freddie Mac named Stacey Goodman as executive vice president and chief information officer. She will begin on Sept. 25 and brings more than 25 years of technology experience in the financial services industry. In her role, Goodman will lead the Information Technology division and provide corporate-wide leadership for all the company's technology activities. Previously Goodman was executive vice president, chief information and operations officer at CIT. Prior to that she held several roles at Bank of America, last serving as managing director and divisional CIO of global technology & operations. Goodman will be a member of the senior operating committee and will report directly to CEO Donald Layton.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a modest uptick in production of single-family mortgage-backed securities in July, as 2017 activity remained slightly above last year’s levels. The two GSEs issued $71.84 billion of MBS last month, a 3.7 percent increase from June. That brought year-to-date volume to $479.77 billion, including securitization of modified loans, a slim 1.1 percent increase compared to the first seven months of 2016. The GSE market continued to shift dramatically from refinance loans to purchase mortgages. Refi loans accounted for just 33.4 percent of Fannie and Freddie business in July after ending 2016 with 55.4 percent of GSE business.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both extended the option to skip the traditional appraisal process in lieu of automated appraisals to purchase loans. Several months ago, the GSEs announced they would offer appraisal waivers on some refinance loans to borrowers who have at least 20 percent equity in their homes. But last week, Freddie said a traditional appraisal also would not be necessary on every purchase loan. The changes take place Sept. 1. A few days later Fannie announced appraisal -free mortgages on some purchase loan applications. Both GSEs emphasize that the appraisal waivers are only permitted when there’s enough data on the property.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans originated on or after Oct. 1, 2017, are eligible for their new refinance programs aimed at borrowers with underwater loans. The FHFA expects applications for the new high loan-to-value streamlined refinance program, originally announced last August, to be available in late 2018. To be eligible for Fannie’s High LTV Refinance Option and Freddie’s Enhanced Relief Refinance program, borrowers must benefit from a reduced monthly payment, lower interest rate, shorter amortization term or by switching from an adjustable-rate mortgage to a fixed-rate loan. One of the benefits of the newer programs, which...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said there’s a gap in the FHFA’s quality control review process in monitoring examination activities, which results in potentially false expectations that a problem has been resolved. The OIG said there are instances when the FHFA doesn’t perform a quality control review of examination conclusions. In other words, examiners don’t issue correspondence that notifies the GSE of the results of the ongoing monitoring activity. Based on the OIG’s review of documents and discussions with examination officials, the regulator determined that the reports of examination issued for the 2015 supervisory cycle contained conclusions derived from ongoing monitoring activities that had...