The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service has delayed the implementation of the revised document upload process for guaranteed single-family home loans. The changes to the document-uploading component in the RHS Guaranteed Underwriting System (GUS) will be implemented on Aug. 26, not Aug. 12 as initially planned, to ease current restrictions on RHS’ document upload. However, an application must first be established before uploading any document into GUS. This can be done by completing the first three pages of a GUS application. Previously, users were not allowed to upload documents into GUS until a final submission had successfully processed. In addition, before the changes to the document uploading process, only users with a security designation that included “final submit authority” were allowed to upload documents. The revised system now allows users with a security designation of ...

A Miami FHA lender and two of his associates plead guilty to a mortgage fraud scheme that cost the FHA approximately $64 million in losses. Hector Hernandez, owner of Great Country Mortgage Bankers and a real estate developer, and his business partner Aleida Fontao each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Olga Hernandez, an underwriter for Great Country, confessed to falsifying information in borrowers’ loan applications to make them appear qualified. According to the DOJ, Great Country was a direct endorsement lender that made loans to first-time homebuyers and borrowers with imperfect credit and low credit cores. Hernandez and Fontao admitted to pressuring their loan officers to approve and close loans based on fraudulent income and employment information. Borrower credit histories were altered to make them look good. The senior underwriter admitted to providing false information to her co-workers and endorsing borrowers’ applications despite knowing that they did not qualify for the loans.

HUD Proposes to Clarify Participation of Religious Organizations in Agency Programs. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a rule that would amend current rules regarding equal participation of faith-based organizations in HUD programs. The amendments implement a 2010 presidential directive, which clarified that religious providers may compete for federal funding without losing their religious identity. The directive also provided protections for program beneficiaries, including a referral process for those opposed to religious groups that operate federally funded programs. The public has 60 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register to comment on the proposed changes. NMI Holdings Turn Profitable. NMI Holdings, parent company of National Mortgage Insurance, appears to be turning the corner toward profitability as the changes implemented by ...

Over the winter, the VA program had quietly become a much more significant factor in the government-insured market...

The fastest-growing sectors of the mortgage market during the second quarter of 2015 were jumbo loans and government-insured production, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. The conventional-conforming segment remains the biggest piece of the mortgage market, accounting for 52.8 percent of originations during the second quarter. Back in early 2013, when refinance activity accounted for three of every four new home loans, the conventional-conforming share was 68.1 percent. Lenders generated...[Includes two data charts]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have declared war on several decades’ worth of business practices as it encourages lenders and real estate service providers to end their “marketing service agreements” with each other. Moreover, according to industry officials, the CFPB is just getting started on its crackdown as it tries to eliminate both legal and under-the-table business arrangements where a lender – in theory – provides something of value to vendors that it’s conducting business with. The first sign that the mortgage industry is concerned...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both reported significant increases in net income during the second quarter based largely on hefty gains on their hedging activities. The two government-sponsored enterprises earned a combined $8.81 billion during the second quarter, up from just $2.41 billion for the first three months of 2015. As a result, the Treasury Department will sweep a combined $8.26 billion from Fannie and Freddie into its coffers. Rising interest rates played...

The last time Ginnie Mae was the top agency issuer was in January of 2009...

The Fannie Mae portion of the MSRs is top heavy in California product at 44 percent of the receivables.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, which operates the Mortgage Partnership Finance Direct Program for nine FHLBanks, began issuing Ginnie Mae securities last week. Its first issuance was a $5 million security backed by mortgages originated by community lenders through the MPF Government MBS product. With the MPF Government MBS product, the MPF program buys fixed-rate mortgage loans originated by FHLBank members that are insured or guaranteed by government agencies. Matt Feldman, president of the Chicago FHLBank, called it “an important milestone for the MPF Program,” adding that Ginnie Mae securities are among the most liquid financial instruments in the world. He said the new product will allow FHLBank members to offer competitive FHA, VA and government guaranteed Native American and rural housing mortgages.