Effective July 1, reporting of tax information to investors of Ginnie Mae securities will move from e-Access to the Ginnie Mae Enterprise-Wide Portal (GMEP), which now serves as the single access point for all of the agency's online business applications. The e-Access function for uploading quarterly widely held fixed investment trust (WHFIT) reporting files for investors would no longer ...

High-touch servicer Nationstar Mortgage announced this week that it plans to raise up to $400.0 million via an initial public offering. The servicer - owned by Fortress Investment Group - primarily focuses on defaulted agency mortgages. Nationstar serviced a $64.2 billion portfolio as of the end of 2010, with subprime mortgages accounting for a 14.6 percent share. Reps. Gary Miller, R-CA and Brad Sherman, D-CA, recently introduced legislation to permanently increase the conforming loan limits. Few analysts believe that H.R. 1754, "the Preserving Equal Access to Mortgage Finance Programs Act," will gain much traction considering...

The Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced they had filed a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and its wholly owned subsidiary, MortgageIT, over some of its FHA lending practices...

The U.S. government is suing Deutsche Bank and its mortgage unit for more than $1 billion for allegedly abusing their direct endorsement authority by duping the FHA into insuring ineligible mortgage loans. The Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a...

The consent orders agreed to recently by 14 mortgage servicers and two third-party service providers will have little impact on the servicing of FHA loans, according to compliance experts. The only areas where the orders might create additional obligations are requirements that the servicer establish a...

A provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act allowing federal agencies that insure mortgage loans to develop rules defining “qualified mortgages” (QM) for their loans may not be ideal for investors, according to industry attorneys. In addition to a recent Federal Reserve proposed rule on ability to repay ...

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 ...