The Department of Housing and Urban Development has completed modifications to its Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology (HERMIT) system to accommodate new premium structures and initial disbursement limits that were implemented last September. Launched in October 2012, HERMIT is HUD’s online-web-based automated system for monitoring and tracking its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio, collecting mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) and paying insurance claims. Lenders also access HERMIT to notify HUD of a borrower’s death and the initiation of foreclosure. While HUD had already modified FHA Connection and released an updated version of the HECM calculation software to accommodate the latest modifications, changes to the HERMIT system were delayed until now. HUD instructs FHA lenders to follow the mapping instructions for borrowers’ mandatory obligations in HERMIT to ...

The Collingwood Group Snags Former Senior VA Executive.Keith Pedigo, former national director of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program, has joined The Collingwood Group, a business advisory firm based in Washington, DC. Pedigo served as head of the VA program for 21 years. Standardized Multifamily FHA Mortgage Insurance Applications. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has updated its lender application templates for mortgage insurance under the FHA’s multifamily housing program. The following standardized documents are being implemented: Underwriter Narrative; Application Checklist and FHA Summary ...

Well, at least GSE junior preferred shares are holding their own. Also, Five Oaks Investment is approving correspondents for its new jumbo flow-program...

The first two months of 2014 generated just $132.85 billion of new agency MBS, down 57.6 percent from the same period last year. A harsh winter in many parts of the country hasn’t helped.

The fee assessed by FHA would cost lenders roughly $30 million a year, or $23 per loan, according to calculations done by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Greater standardization and transparency is needed to overcome the impediments to growing a new issue, non-agency MBS market, according to Michael Stegman, housing finance policy adviser to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. In remarks this week at the JP Morgan Securitized Products Research Conference, Stegman said lack of housing finance reform, lingering distrust among non-agency securitizers, lack of product and the trauma of heavy losses have stunted the growth of the market. The lack of reform of the government-sponsored enterprises should not become...

The Department of Justice is investigating PNC Financial Services Group and Bank of America in connection with their FHA-related mortgage lending practices, the two financial institutions disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. PNC said it has received subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York seeking information relating to National City Bank’s lending practices in connection with FHA-insured loans as well as the origination of non-FHA loans and their sale and securitization. Another subpoena was issued...

Lenders will face increased fair-lending scrutiny even if they stick to originating loans that meet qualified-mortgage requirements, according to industry attorneys. While federal regulators have stated that a lender’s QM-only policy won’t increase fair-lending risk, a number of factors beyond QMs have prompted an increased focus on fair-lending issues. During a webinar this week hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance, Andrew Sandler, chairman and executive partner at the law firm of BuckleySandler, said he has never seen regulators work more closely together on fair-lending issues. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are doing joint investigations. Sandler said...

The VA loan limit for the Honolulu area has been increased to $721,050 from $625,000, thanks to Sen. Brian Schatz, D-HI.

The Obama administration is asking Congress for authority to charge FHA lenders an “administrative fee” to help pay for improvements to the FHA quality assurance program. FHA wants to build a new quality assurance framework that will provide lenders more clarity about the agency’s expectations regarding the loan production process, said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante during a media briefing on provisions in the administration’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal that affect the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The idea is...