An FHA proposal for new legislative authority to transfer servicing has raised concerns among industry participants, particularly in the Ginnie Mae market. Authorizing the FHA to shift mortgage-servicing rights from one servicer to another could have a ripple effect on Ginnie Mae servicing rights and also adversely impact state mortgage servicing and origination licenses, some say. The bottom line is that Congress should consider FHA’s request for new statutory authority with great care, said Larry Platt, a compliance attorney and a partner at the Washington law firm K&L Gates. “We would hope that ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this weekend proposed limited revisions and clarifications to a number of its mortgage rules. The CFPB proposed allowing originations of certain high-cost balloon mortgages by small lenders to receive qualified mortgage status regardless of where the lenders operate. The CFPB also proposed slightly tweaking an exemption from escrow requirements on certain higher-priced mortgages originated by lenders in rural and underserved areas. To prevent ... [Includes two briefs]

Lenders that originate home loans to hold in portfolio are concerned about the regulatory consequences of originating non-qualified mortgages. While some have asked for a blanket exemption from liability for non-QMs held in portfolio, Democrats in Congress appear unlikely to approve such changes. “Congress should amend the ability-to-repay statute to grant QM status to all mortgage loans held in portfolio by community banks,” Charles Vice, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of ...

The SEC will push for admissions of guilt as part of settlements of lawsuits it files against private industry, including participants in the MBS market.

It appears that Cerberus is going down the mortgage aisle one more time. Let's hope it doesn't end like GMAC. Meanwhile, jumbo MBS market seizes up, temporarily.

Investors in vintage non-agency MBS could take $7.8 billion in losses due to previously undisclosed principal forbearance on top of the $1.0 billion in losses uncovered this month. However, a survey suggests that servicers don’t intend to pass the losses through to investors. The losses recognized in May were reported after Ocwen Financial took over servicing from Homeward Residential. Analysts warned that other servicing transfers could prompt similar losses. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said...

Japan became the biggest overseas investor in U.S. MBS and ABS markets last year, moving past mainland China to head the ranking, according to final Treasury Department data. Japanese investors held $199.7 billion of U.S. MBS and ABS as of the midway point in 2012, the one time a year when Treasury releases detailed foreign holdings of U.S. long-term securities. That was up 21.3 percent from June 2011, when Japan held just $164.7 billion of MBS and ABS. The Japanese increased...[Includes one data chart]

The recent rapid rise in interest rates has some market participants talking about margin calls on MBS investors, but so far all the chatter appears to be speculative – although there still could be red ink out there, somewhere. At press time, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury had stabilized at 2.54 percent. In mid-May the rate was 1.70 percent. That’s a run-up of 84 basis points. One secondary market official told...

The Securities and Exchange Commission and defendants in civil lawsuits will have to face the harsher realities of an open-ended policy change requiring defendants in certain civil lawsuits to admit guilt as a condition for settlement, say legal experts. There is apparently a consensus among industry attorneys that it will be difficult for the SEC to determine when to apply the new policy and to which cases. In addition, there is also the question of whether the SEC will have the discipline to reject a huge settlement and avoid the expense and uncertainty of a drawn-out trial, just so it could get an admission of guilt by a corporate defendant. According to global law firm DLA Piper, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White recently notified...

Servicers appear to have won a battle with consumer advocates regarding state adoption of servicing requirements that exceed those established by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Council of State Governments this weekend decided against recommending California’s “Homeowner’s Bill of Rights” as model legislation for states, according to a spokesman for the CSG. The Mortgage Bankers Association had warned that piecemeal adoption of California’s bill would increase costs and create confusion. California’s Homeowner’s Bill of Rights included...