The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board has collected $1.9 million from Oct. 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013, from actions taken against FHA lenders. The MRB actions involved 30 lenders, of whom 15 agreed to settle and seven agreed to indemnify HUD for its losses, according to the board’s latest data. The indemnification agreement covered 166 FHA-insured loans, and 11 lenders lost their authority to participate in the FHA single-family mortgage program. Cases heard by the MRB involved infractions, such as failure to implement and maintain a quality control plan and to review early payment default loans, which resulted in ...
HUD Delays Implementation of Short-Sale Participation Requirement. The implementation of the PFS Participation Requirement, which is found in Mortgagee Letter 2013-23, Updated Pre-Foreclosure Sale and Deed-in-Lieu-of-Foreclosure Requirements, has been delayed indefinitely. All other provisions included in the mortgagee letter remain in effect. Previous guidance on short-sale participation requirements also remain in effect until further notice. FHA to Consolidate Lender ID Numbers. The FHA will consolidate the lender identification numbers of those participating in both the FHA Title I and Title II programs, provided ...
However, if Fannie Mae determines through established delivery or quality-control review processes that any loan has ineligible term or amortization provisions, it will be subject to repurchase.
The FHA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have already slipped into somewhat of a “power save” mode since substantial parts of the federal government were shut down early this week. The FHA will continue to endorse new loans under what it calls a “multi-year appropriation authority.” FHA Commissioner Carol Galante said the agency will continue to guarantee single-family loans during the shutdown, refuting earlier news accounts that were based on erroneous materials included in HUD’s shutdown contingency plan. “I do want to clear up any confusion about what this means for FHA single-family home borrowers. FHA will be able to endorse single-family loans during the shutdown,” Galante said. “A very limited number of staff will be available to endorse new loans.” Galante warned...
Sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will get a temporary, limited reprieve from repurchase requirements as the mortgage industry implements the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule, according to new guidance from the two government-sponsored enterprises. “During the initial transitional period ..., Fannie Mae will not require repurchase of a loan on the grounds of noncompliance with the applicable QM-related points-and-fees eligibility requirement as long as it was otherwise eligible for acquisition,” the GSE said in a lender letter. “However, if a court of law, regulator or other authoritative body determines the loan exceeded the applicable QM-related points-and-fees limitation in violation of the CFPB final rule, such loan is subject to repurchase.” In addition, if Fannie determines...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to show its hand on 2014 conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but that isn’t stopping elected officials from sticking their noses in the issue. In particular, a recent letter sent by 13 senators – 11 Democrats and two Republicans – addressed to FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco puts pressure on the agency to show what legal authority it has to declare new loan limits and requests a “quantitative analysis” on what impact it will have on “the economy and national and regional housing markets.” The 13 senators want...
The FHA raised red flags late last week when it announced it will need to draw $1.7 billion from the Treasury, not because the agency’s claims-paying ability is at risk, but rather to comply with federal law requiring it to have reserves to cover anticipated future losses and mandatory capital reserves. The mandatory appropriation is an accounting transfer and does not reflect an up-to-date view of the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, its long-term fiscal health or its current cash position, said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante in a letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, ranking minority member. The calculation used...
Policymakers at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA need to work with lenders to identify and resolve sources of buyback risk uncertainty in order to loosen the market’s grip on tight credit conditions, according to a white paper issued this week by Moody’s Analytics and the Urban Institute. Disagreements over lender judgment calls, post-underwriting chances in circumstances and nitpicking over trivial mistakes by the two government-sponsored enterprises and the FHA have stepped up put-backs “in ways lenders cannot adequately address through better underwriting or pricing,” note paper co-authors Mark Zandi and Jim Parrott. In 2011 and 2012, Fannie and Freddie together required...
RSS