Lenders are cautiously expanding their guidelines on FHA lending by reducing its minimum credit score to below 580 to qualify borrowers. Carrington Mortgage Servicers this week joined a cadre of some 80 FHA lenders that have lowered their minimum FICO scores and eased their overlays to better focus on borrowers, particularly those below the 640 FICO range. The Santa Ana, CA-based lender is doing it not only for its FHA business but also for its VA and USDA loan programs. Carrington lowered its minimum FICO score to 550 for FHA loans, showing more aggressiveness than Wells Fargo, which moved its own FHA FICO floor to 600 from 640 at the beginning of February for purchase mortgages originated through its retail channel. The FHA currently requires a minimum credit score of 580 for most borrowers for 3.5 percent downpayment loans. Borrowers below 580 undergo more stringent manual underwriting and ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has published a proposal to eliminate the requirement that an FHA borrower be required to pay interest even after the loan is prepaid. Specifically, the proposed change would prohibit FHA lenders from charging post-payment interest, allowing them instead to charge interest only through the date the mortgage is paid. The proposed rule change is necessary to avoid FHA loans being prohibited under new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ability-to-repay rules and revised higher-cost loan regulations starting in January 2015. It effectively aligns FHA prepayment rules with the new CFPB rules. Comments on the proposal are due by May 12, 2014. The FHA currently allows lenders to charge interest for the full month if the borrower prepays on a date other than the installment due date. Regardless of whether the loan is FHA or non-FHA, there were complaints among borrowers that ...

Thirty-three FHA lenders were sanctioned and 32 others lost their FHA approval between October and December 2013 because of actions taken by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board. The board also imposed $516,500 in civil money penalties and entered into one settlement agreement to bring an unidentified lender into compliance. During the three-month period, one lender entered into an indemnification agreement with the MRB over one FHA-insured single-family loan. FHA lenders were subject to MRB disciplinary actions for various reasons, including failing to establish and implement a servicing quality control plan and failing to perform loss mitigation as required by the agency. Actions were also taken against lenders for failing to conduct monthly reviews of delinquent loans to determine the type of loss mitigation needed, as well as for failing to repay HUD losses in connection with indemnification agreements. Noncompliance with HUD’s annual recertification requirements also resulted in ...

A mortgagee that no longer wishes to participate in FHA programs must submit a letter requesting voluntary withdrawal of its FHA approval, signed by a senior executive of the company, according to guidance published in the March 2014 issue of FHA’s Lender Insight. Lenders may not simply let their FHA approval expire by failing to complete FHA’s required annual recertification process, the guidance warned. “Failing to recertify will result in a referral to the Mortgagee Review Board for administrative action,” it said. The board’s withdrawal of a lender’s FHA approval could have an adverse impact on the lender should it reapply for FHA approval in the future. A lender requesting voluntary withdrawal of FHA approval is subject to a review before the agency signs off on the request. The request would be denied if the lender has an MRB administrative action pending against it or if it is behind on its mortgage insurance premium payments. A lender whose FHA approval has been withdrawn may ...

Old Republic Cancels Recapitalization Plan for its Mortgage Guaranty Subsidiaries. Old Republic International Corp. has withdrawn plans to secure capital market funding for its beleaguered consumer credit indemnity and mortgage guaranty subsidiaries for lack of investor interest. Both business segments are housed within the Republic Financial Indemnity Group and have been in a run-off mode since 2008 and 2011, respectively. ORI Chairman/CEO Al Zucaro said holding company funds would be used to shore up the regulatory capital of the mortgage guaranty subsidiaries. The completion of the recapitalization plan hinged on regulatory approvals in North Carolina, Florida and Vermont, as well as from the government-sponsored enterprises and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. ORI said that with all the complications, it could not be certain of getting the necessary approvals. A primary investor concern is that new capital would be used to pay for RMIC’s legacy problems, and investors want their money to ...

More lenders have expressed concern about a provision in the proposed FY 2015 federal budget seeking congressional authority to collect $30 million to help improve and strengthen FHA quality assurance reviews. Under the president’s budget proposal, FHA would collect an “administrative fee” from FHA lenders to implement the quality assurance (QA) changes needed to provide a clearer, more transparent picture of enforcement going forward. The improvements are meant to provide lenders not only information about early payment default or other kinds of default characteristics through loan sampling but also an accurate snapshot of their “manufacturing risk,” which is the risk that a loan is not underwritten properly. “The purpose is for lenders to have the information six to nine months after they have originated the loan as opposed to ...

Ginnie Mae will begin scrutinizing issuers which, for reasons unknown, have not issued a single Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security since obtaining their approval. Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer said he is assigning staff to investigate the underlying cause of issuer inactivity. “We’re starting that process now to find out what their plans and objectives are to try to get a better handle on what’s going on,” he explained. With the growth in new issuers, agency staff has focused on making sure that newcomers are transitioning smoothly and are up to speed on what is happening in the mortgage securities market. But there are those that have remained inexplicably dormant. Tozer admits that agency staff is spread quite thin and the agency has been hiring more account executives lately to monitor all program participants to ensure there are not more early failures. New issuers typically go through a ...

The Chinese Year of the Horse welcomed the FHA with a hard kick in the head as total originations fell 20 percent in January from December 2013. Even as rising interest rates slowed refinancing activity last year, the expected increase in purchase-mortgage lending barely materialized and, in fact, appears to be dropping off. Lenders reported $8.7 billion in new originations in January, down from $10.9 billion in December and $23.7 billion from a year ago. Most were fixed-rate mortgages and 77.1 percent were purchase transactions. Three of the top five FHA lenders – Quicken Loans, JPMorgan Chase and LoanDepot – reported purchase origination totals below 40 percent. Top-ranked Wells Fargo and Bank of America each reported 64.0 percent of total FHA originations as purchase transactions. Wells Fargo closed the month with $519.0 million despite a ... [2 charts]

Issuance of mortgage-backed securities with a Ginnie Mae guaranty fell in the fourth quarter, with most issuers showing significant decreases from the previous quarter. Ginnie Mae issuances saw a hefty 28.0 percent decline quarter over quarter, with the top five issuers -- Wells Fargo, Chase Home Finance, PennyMac, Freedom Mortgage and Quicken Loans -- recording substantial decreases during the period. There is speculation that slower FHA refinancing activity, FHA policy changes and the premium hike that took effect in June last year might have caused the decline in Ginnie Mae issuance. Ginnie Mae data showed monthly issuance peaking in June at $41.0 billion, progressively dropping over the next few months and finally settling at $22.3 billion at the end of December. Ginnie Mae MBS issuances totaled $393.2 billion in 2013, down 2.4 percent compared to 2012 business. The FHA share of issuances was ... [including one chart]

The Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York is investigating Bank of America's compliance with the requirements of the FHA's Lender Direct Endorsement program. BofA disclosed the investigation in its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission but withheld details. Department of Justice investigations of FHA-related fraud are based typically upon an alleged violation of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) and/or the False Claims Act (FCA). Civil monetary penalties under FIRREA could go as high as $1.1 million per violation while treble damages are potentially available for FCA claims. Both laws have a 10-year statute of limitation. As a direct endorsement lender, BofA is authorized to originate, underwrite and certify loans for mortgage insurance without further reviews by the FHA or the Department of Housing and Urban Development. If the loan defaults, the holder of the loan may ...