The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued guidance to help VA lenders understand better the agency’s interim final rule on a borrower’s ability to repay and qualified mortgages. The guidance was published in a frequently asked questions (FAQs) format to clarify and explain both the VA’s ATR and QM standards. The VA interim final rule became effective on May 9, 2014, the date it was published in the Federal Register. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 requires residential mortgage lenders to make a reasonable and good faith determination that the consumer has a reasonable ability to repay the loan according to its terms. The statute directed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to develop and implement an ATR/QM rule. Under the CFPB’s final rule, a qualified mortgage is a category of loans that have certain, more stable features that ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Housing Service have issued 2016 guidelines for lending to borrowers who have gone through a bankruptcy, foreclosure or a short sale. Under VA guidelines, borrowers emerging from a previous Chapter 7 bankruptcy may apply for a VA loan two years after the bankruptcy discharge. Borrowers with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy may qualify for a new VA loan if they have made at least 12 months of payments and the lender concludes that they have reestablished satisfactory credit. Before the bankruptcy-tainted borrower applies for a VA loan, however, the trustee or the bankruptcy judge must approve the new loan. The lender may put in a good word on behalf of the borrower provided the latter has met all requirements for a new loan. Borrowers may apply for a VA loan two years after a foreclosure or a short sale. In the case of ...

The FHA flood insurance requirements could make it difficult or more risky for lenders to originate FHA loans in states with significant flood risk or where flood maps may not accurately reflect the current flood risks, the Mortgage Bankers Association warned. Testifying during a recent hearing on private flood insurance, Steven Bradshaw, executive vice president of Standard Mortgage and MBA representative, warned that FHA’s current requirement for lenders to secure flood insurance on properties only if it is located within a high flood-risk zone has had some unexpected adverse impact, particularly in the wake of hurricane-related catastrophes. Bradshaw noted that many homes that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina were not located in special flood-hazard areas (SFHA) and therefore were not required to have flood insurance. “Sadly, these borrowers were often uninsured and the ...

The FHA has given lenders and servicers an additional extension through April 17, 2016, to submit due-and-payable notices when Home Equity Conversion Mortgage borrowers fall behind on their property tax or insurance payments. The extended deadline also provides FHA lenders and servicers an opportunity to pursue loss mitigation before initiating foreclosureThe latest deadline extension was the second such extension. In April 2015, the FHA announced a policy change providing HECM lenders and servicers an additional 60 days in which to initiate foreclosure proceedings against any troubled HECM borrower with a case number issued prior to Aug. 4, 2014, with a non-borrowing spouse. Lenders and servicers are required to comply with reasonable-diligence timeframes for such HECMs. Debenture interest will not be curtailed during this period. The April policy allows mortgagees full discretion as to when to use the extension.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week announced an insurance rate reduction for multifamily affordable and energy-efficient properties to stimulate production and rehabilitation of affordable rental housing. The new reduced rates will take effect on April 1, 2016, and will directly affect FHA’s Multifamily Housing Programs and properties housing low- and moderate-income families. For “broadly affordable” housing, the FHA is lowering annual mortgage insurance rates to 25 basis points. Rates for affordable mixed-income properties would be lowered to 35 bps. For energy-efficient properties, the annual rates would be reduced to 25 bps. To ensure that broadly affordable and energy-efficient properties benefit directly from the lower rates, FHA will limit the fees that can be charged on these loans. “The reduction in mortgage insurance premiums for FHA loans on ...

An estimated $254.15 billion of agency mortgage servicing rights were transferred in bulk sales transactions last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities disclosures. The peak of the market came during the second quarter of 2015, when a whopping $102.27 billion of MSR were transferred to new servicers. Some $61.80 billion of that was in the Ginnie Mae program, with Bank of America ... [Includes one data chart]

Issuers of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pushed a record $435.80 billion of government-insured loans through the program during 2015, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Last year’s total Ginnie MBS issuance topped the previous record of $429.50 billion issued during 2009. The $435.80 billion total for 2015 includes securitization of FHA home-equity conversion mortgages and other single-family loans guaranteed by FHA, the VA, and the Department of Agriculture rural housing program from Ginnie pool-level MBS data that are not truncated. Production in 2015 hit its high-water mark in the third quarter with $128.23 billion in issuance, and then fell 18.0 percent in the final three months of the year. Purchase mortgages continued to account for most Ginnie business in 2015, 58.0 percent of the agency’s forward-mortgage securitizations. But a huge factor in the ... [ Charts ]

FHA lenders are uneasy over whether issues raised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new integrated disclosure rules could affect FHA lending. Although the issues cited by lenders are not FHA issues per se, these lenders are concerned that such uncertainties may cause problems for their FHA business, according to mortgage industry consultant Brian Chappelle, a principal at Potomac Partners. For example if a lender cures a mistake and the cure results in a reimbursement of, say, $100 to the borrower at closing, would that be considered a violation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s minimum 3.5 percent cash-investment requirement for FHA loans. “I don’t think it is a violation, but lenders are worried about how HUD might interpret it,” said Chappelle. “It is well after closing and it is obviously not a gift given to the borrower. It is ...

Quicken Loan attempt to have a governmen false-claim lawsuit against the lender moved from Washington, DC, to a federal court in Detroit will not necessarily secure a win, according to a mortgage industry attorney. “I think it was more the device Quicken needed in order to become the plaintiff instead of the defendant,” said one attorney who preferred to remain anonymous because his firm handles other legal matters for Quicken Loans. He said it does not matter whether the case is tried in Washington or Detroit but what matters is its actual substance. At the same time, there is no reason why those defenses could not be raised in a DC court, the attorney added. Last month, a federal judge in Detroit dismissed Quicken’s preemptive lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Justice Department for failure to state a claim. Ultimately, the court ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a clarification for non-borrower spouses on VA title documents, which apparently has created some confusion when lenders try to foreclose on VA-backed properties. VA is aware that lenders occasionally make loans to veterans who wish to use their home loan benefit to purchase a home and include their spouse in ownership, but the spouse does not wish to be on the mortgage loan. Including the spouse on the deed but not on the mortgage note can create a problem if the VA loan goes into foreclosure because the non-borrowing spouse’s ownership in the property could defeat the foreclosure action, the VA explained. “Delaying or preventing a foreclosure increases foreclosure claim cost to the government and the veteran,” the agency said. According to the VA guidance, when a loan is originated that includes a ...