Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh reassured participants at an interagency conference on the Community Reinvestment Act last week that the enforcement orders federal bank regulators issued last year and the state attorneys general national mortgage settlement will work well together. Ive said from the beginning that it is not only possible, but absolutely necessary, that our separate actions be able to work well together. And I think weve succeeded in that, Walsh said. The steps we have each required servicers to take to fix the problems in servicing and foreclosure processing ...
Ginnie Mae has seen a huge increase in business volume and appears to have adequate reserves, but the agency is still hamstrung by the federal budget process and has work to do to improve its risk management, according to a new Government Accounting Office report. With $1.186 trillion in single-family MBS outstanding and $301.7 billion in new issuance just last year, Ginnie is nearly as big as Freddie Mac minus the retained portfolio. But the agency has a relatively small staff of full-time employees and has to get around the federal budget process by using business revenues to hire...
A Texas-based mortgage lender that recently lost its approval to originate and underwrite FHA loans sued in state court to compel the Department of Housing and Urban Development to withdraw an announcement of the enforcement action. AmericanHomeKey filed the complaint in Dallas County Court to force the withdrawal of a March 23 HUD press release announcing the immediate and permanent revocation of the lenders FHA authority to originate, underwrite and close new mortgages with FHA insurance. The lender said a premature announcement would ruin its relationship with investors and result in massive losses. The HUD Mortgagee Review Board announced ...
The mortgage industry told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the recent state attorneys general settlement contains a robust set of consumer protections that ought to be used as the framework for developing national servicing standards. However, industry representatives expressed concern that such an initiative could create additional barriers to entry to the servicing business. First and foremost, the AG settlement will provide substantial relief to homeowners and will establish significant new homeowner protections for the future, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a recent...
Lenders, home builders and affiliated settlement service companies are lobbying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to preserve the ability of affiliated settlement service providers to do business with one another under the final ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule the agency is charged with writing. We strongly support a competitive mortgage market where builders and lenders large and small, unaffiliated and affiliated, as well as other settlement service providers actively compete to provide sound mortgage products and ancillary settlement services to consumers, said the Leading...
Last week, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Jed Rakoff of the District Court for the Southern District of New York erred when he blocked the $285 million agreement the Securities and Exchange Commission and Citigroup struck to settle a dispute over MBS that later turned toxic when the market tanked. Market observers think it likely means the settlement is back on track, and a good sign for the market, with sanity and certainty prevailing, as one put it. In U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., the district court this past November refused to approve a...
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a non-governmental watchdog of the securities industry, has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve proposed amendments designed to increase transparency in to-be-announced transactions involving agency pass-through MBS. The proposed rule changes would establish clear requirements for reporting TBA transactions that are for good delivery (GD) or not for good delivery (NGD) to enhance the ability of investors to negotiate fair and competitive prices for agency MBS. Based on market standards, the GD and NGD classifications were...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking for two good chief executives who are willing to work a thankless job for substantially reduced pay and the chance to oversee the transition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from private companies to government entities and perhaps eventually out of business altogether. Working closely with the two GSEs, the Finance Agency is in the midst of discussions with candidates to fill the CEO vacancies at both Fannie and Freddie, according to FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is reportedly attracting some big investors as it proceeds with its initiative to dispose of GSE and government-held real estate-owned properties, but some industry observers question whether the fledgling program can be modeled in a way that makes business sense. Earlier this month, the FHFA announced the first pilot transaction under its REO initiative, which is targeted to the country’s “hardest-hit” metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Phoenix and
Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has taken steps to ensure that the GSEs mortgage purchases conform to certain underwriting standards, the Finance Agencys oversight of underwriting standards is limited and requires more attention, the FHFAs official watchdog concluded this week. The FHFAs Office of Inspector General found in its audit of FHFA oversight of Fannie Maes single-family mortgage underwriting standards that the agency lacks a formal process for reviewing underwriting standards and variances. Instead, it informally reviews and comments on Fannies proposed credit policy changes.