The “zero-zero” requirement in the loan originator compensation proposed rule pending at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could inadvertently steer borrowers into more expensive mortgage loans, according to a top industry official. “There is absolutely no doubt that forcing a zero-zero option is going to result in higher-priced loans,” said David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week. “Premium [loans] don’t get the same kind of multiple as a current coupon. So as the yield curve shifts and we see rates move, we’re going to see action that is going to make these numbers move around a lot.” To give a more extreme example, “if we have an interest-rate rally, you can drop...

Rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in August to revamp servicing practices prompted widely varied reactions from servicers, individual consumers and community banks. Servicers largely sought to keep current servicing rules unchanged while borrowers asked for greater protections and community banks requested an exemption from the proposal. The CFPB said the proposed rules are aimed at ending “surprises and runarounds” for borrowers. The proposed rules incorporated a number of provisions included in the national servicing settlement and consent orders between servicers and federal regulators. Some of those provisions were required by the Dodd-Frank Act. Servicers largely suggested that the CFPB should not implement servicing rules beyond those specifically required by the DFA. However, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, whose members include the servicers complying with the settlement and consent orders, called...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this week sued JPMorgan alleging fraudulent and deceptive acts in the pooling and sale of residential MBS by now-defunct Bear Stearns. Filed in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit is the first of several legal actions contemplated by the Residential MBS Working Group, a state-federal task force created by President Obama earlier this year to investigate those suspected of contributing to the financial crisis through the sale of defective mortgage certificates. Bear Stearns, which was taken over by JPMorgan, and co-defendant EMC Mortgage perpetuated...

The MBS market widely embraced the Federal Reserve’s decision to increase its holdings of agency MBS by $40 billion per month until job growth improves significantly, but some observers are questioning the long-term costs and effectiveness of the strategy. Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Jay Brinkman said that the Fed plan is “a way to inject more money into the economy,” while noting that the purchase of the no-risk, lower-yielding assets is designed to force investors to expand their risk appetite. “The idea is that if the Fed steps in and buys up some of these safe-haven assets, that is going to force people to go out and invest more and take on more risk,” he said during an MBA conference in Washington, DC, this week. This approach “is actually turning...

Private capital remains on the sidelines of the mortgage finance industry, unwilling to gamble on future government policy or the nascent recovery in housing markets, industry experts say. Banks and their examiners are pointing fingers at one another over who is responsible for the current credit crunch because regulations are not all in place, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. During a symposium in Washington, DC, this week, Zandi said providers of private capital are also concerned about a housing market that has performed much better in the last six months but still raises doubts about sustaining house price gains. “I don’t think [it can be sustainable] until we nail down...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency late this week followed through on its promise to develop a post Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac secondary mortgage market infrastructure by releasing for public comment its proposed new securitization platform that could be used by either GSE, as well as by private issuers. The FHFA’s white paper proposed a framework for both a common securitization platform and a model pooling and servicing agreement. Public input on the proposal is due to the Finance Agency by Dec. 3.

Freddie Mac last week cut some slack in the form of a lifeline to MGIC Investment Corp. which will allow the mortgage insurer to write additional policies even as the MI and the GSE work through a simmering dispute over pool insurance. On Sept. 28, MGIC announced that Freddie has reduced the amount of capital contribution MGIC Investment must pay its principal subsidiary MGIC to $100 million from $200 million. The GSE also extended the deadline for this contribution from Sept. 30 to Dec. 1.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates low until the U.S. economy creates a significant increase in employment will help banks continue to enjoy solid earnings from their mortgage banking activities, according to analysts at Credit Suisse. The Fed is increasing its already huge portfolio of agency mortgage-backed securities by $40 billion a month. Along with the $25 billion a month the central bank has been buying to replace principal paydown, the Fed’s total MBS acquisitions ...

The nature of mortgage fraud evolved over the past few years, and unless mortgage companies adapt to keep pace, they increasingly risk exposing themselves to fraud-driven losses, according to the auditing firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. “In the past, mortgage fraud largely occurred in the loan origination process. But with the sharp increase in mortgage defaults, fraudsters have evolved their schemes to target default servicing,” PWC said in a new white paper. “Now, more fraud is occurring among loan ...

The unrelenting pressure to comply with industry regulations and standards is the greatest factor impacting eMortgage and paperless mortgage initiatives, according to a survey by Xerox Mortgage Services. Xerox’s eighth annual Path to Paperless survey found that an ample 86 percent of industry respondents looked to a technological solution to avoid being caught on the wrong side of regulatory enforcement. Mortgage laws, regulations and standards continue to evolve in a direction toward ...