The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposal to remove a key disclosure in a standard HUD/VA form that comes with a residential mortgage closing document is getting flak from the mortgage industry and from some members of Congress. Leading Democrats on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees are pushing HUD to reconsider the proposal. They fear the proposed change would make it easier for lenders that have engaged in criminal behavior to re-enter the FHA and VA markets and continue their illegal lending practices. Among other things, HUD’s proposal would eliminate the requirement that FHA lenders certify on each loan application that they are not, or have not recently been, subject to certain charges or penalties. In their letter, Senators Sherrod Brown, D-OH, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, urged HUD to ...
A multi-million dollar false claim lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Wells Fargo in 2012 appears headed to trial unless both sides agree to renegotiate a settlement. Brought under the federal False Claims Act, the lawsuit has moved on to the discovery phase of the litigation following a failed attempt by the parties to reach a settlement. The DOJ has wielded the FCA effectively in the past couple of years in efforts to recover losses from lenders that allegedly committed loan fraud against the FHA. A string of FCA lawsuits against FHA lenders has resulted in approximately $4.5 billion in recoveries for the government. The 2012 lawsuit alleged that Wells Fargo misled the FHA as to the quality of underwriting on 6,320 FHA-insured loans, which later caused approximately $190 million in losses to the agency’s mortgage insurance fund. Wells Fargo has denied the allegations and maintains that, as a ...
The Federal Home Loan Bank Mortgage Partnership Finance program has announced its first security issuance with a Ginnie Mae guarantee. The $5 million security is backed by home loans originated by community banks and credit unions through the MPF Government MBS product. The Mortgage Bankers Association welcomed the new MBS, seeing it as another opportunity for all lenders to access the capital markets directly, reducing costs and increasing originations. “Many community banks use the FHLB MPF program to sell conventional mortgages into the secondary market,” observed Ron Haynie, senior vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America. “This expansion in aggregating and securitizing government loans provides community banks with the opportunity to reach more borrowers, especially in rural and small-town markets, and to safely sell those loans to ...
Mortgagee registration for transitioning to the FHA’s Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal will begin next month. The EAD portal is a web-based system that will enable mortgagees or their designated service providers to transmit appraisal data and reports to FHA prior to endorsement. By using this portal, mortgagees will find it easier to do business with the FHA and reduce post-endorsement corrections of appraisal data. Use of the EAD portal is free. In order to migrate to the portal before its use becomes mandatory on June 27, 2016, mortgagees must register for one of the available migration phases that the FHA will establish. These phases include the following: Start every 30 days, and be approximately 60 days in duration; Allow mortgagees to migrate to the portal any time at their own pace; Require a timeline for mortgagees that will be submitting appraisal directly to ...
The Federal Home Loan Bank’s Mortgage Partnership Finance (MPF) Program has removed certain barriers to streamline refinancing of government-backed mortgages. Effective on July 6, 2015, the MPF no longer requires minimum FICO score, maximum loan-to-value ratios or appraisals for FHA streamlined refis, VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance loans and rural housing home loans with a U.S. Department of Agriculture guarantee. The MPF program’s participating financial institutions (PFIs) may now originate and underwrite streamline refis based solely on the requirements of the FHA, VA or the USDA’s Rural Housing Service. The program currently requires borrower and co-borrower income for government loan streamline refis for the purpose of loan presentment. “Presentment” refers to the right to require a lender to demand payment of amounts ...
HUD Re-Offers Single-Family Loans to Investors. Due to the required release of a Bidder Supplement for Single-Family Loan Sale 2015-1, the Department of Housing and Urban Development re-offered all pools in SFLS 2015-1 on July 16. The offering included National Pools and Neighborhood Stabilization Outcome Pools (NSOs). The NSOs include one pool for which only nonprofit bidders or local-government agencies were allowed to bid. Such pools consist of loans in areas that have been hard hit with foreclosures or that have experienced an economic downturn. The final NSO pool areas include Chicago; Newark, NJ; Camden, NJ; Nassau and Suffolk Counties, NY; Baltimore; and Philadelphia. The NSO pool for Detroit was earmarked for nonprofit and local-government bidders. Sellers Bring $1.53 Billion Servicing Offering to Market. Denver-based Phoenix Capital is in the market with a ...
The mortgage market cranked up new originations significantly during the second quarter of 2015, lifting production to its highest level in nearly two years, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders produced an estimated $445 billion of first-lien single-family mortgages during the second quarter, an increase of 23.6 percent over the first three months of 2015. It marked the strongest origination volume since the second quarter of 2013, when the industry was in the middle of a refinance boom that generated over $2 trillion in new production over a 12-month period. The party this time around doesn’t look...[Includes two data tables]
Originations of purchase mortgages were strong in the second quarter of 2015 and through the start of summer, according to industry participants. In recent months, demand for home purchases has been driven by current homeowners and first-time homebuyers, two groups that are particularly reliant on mortgage financing. “The purchase market has been stronger than people expected in the second quarter,” said Paul Miller, a managing director at FBR Capital Markets. Kevin Hester, chief lending officer at Home BancShares, said...
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