Wall Street analysts said it is unlikely banks will take losses on repurchased delinquent FHA mortgage loans, easing fears that FHA may not fully reimburse those losses due to servicing errors. Commenting on a report challenging banks’ policy of accruing interest on delinquent FHA loans, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said ...

Borrowers approved by the FHA to acquire real estate owned (REO) properties under the FHA’s “$100 Down” sales incentive will benefit from new guidance issued recently by the agency. Pre-approved borrowers under an FHA REO program requiring a minimal $100 cash investment may finance ...

Good news for mortgage brokers: the FHA has eliminated the statutory 1 percent origination cap on 203(k) rehabilitation mortgages. This means that loan originators may set and collect “fair, reasonable and customary fees and charges” above 1 percent for originating “fixer upper” mortgage ...

Issuers may now choose between two methods of compensating servicers of securities backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgages under a new policy change announced recently by Ginnie Mae. The choices are either a monthly flat servicing fee of 6-to-75 basis points or ...

Ginnie Mae servicing continued to show strong growth as it posted a 4.0 percent jump in the first quarter of 2011 from the previous quarter and an overall 19.3 percent increase from the same period last year. The top 50 Ginnie servicers reported $1.11 trillion of single-family mortgage debt outstanding at the end of the... [Includes one data chart]

Ginnie Mae tightened several regulations relating to its mortgage-backed securities program over the last month as its MBS issuance hit a two-year low in early 2011. Ginnie All Participants Memo 11-04 changed rules that had allowed servicers to include delinquent loans into Ginnie pools. The memo told...[Includes one data chart]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development clearly spelled out that lenders must be discrete in their use of the FHA “Approved Lending Institution” insignia and defined other specific regulations relating to logo use in a letter to lenders this week. Improper use of HUD or FHA logos can result...

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is making progress in light of its ongoing struggles in the mortgage market but significant challenges remain, according to a recent ratings announcement by Fitch Ratings. Last week, Fitch announced it has assigned long-term and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) to the...

The potential shutdown of the federal government at the end of this week could have sudden and detrimental effects on FHA borrowers and lenders, although the situation was still very much in flux as Friday’s midnight deadline rapidly approached. “This is the worst time to introduce this uncertainty into...

Congress explicitly exempted FHA and Department of Veterans Affairs loans from the definition of “qualified residential mortgage” in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. While those government loans will not be subject to the risk-retention requirements for mortgage securitizations, the proposed QRM safe harbor for... [Includes one graph]