FHA-approved reverse mortgage lenders conducting any new financial assessments of elderly borrowers should not be overly restrictive to ensure that the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program remains a viable option for cash-poor seniors, according to the National Council on Aging. The NCA, an advocacy group for elderly Americans, noted that lender assessments of borrowers’ ability to repay a HECM loan may be tough seniors with modest income who could not qualify for a conventional home loan would be left with fewer alternatives to tap home equity. The FHA does not have specific income requirements for HECM borrowers. However, policymakers are ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has paid a total of $962,600 in incentive payments to servicers that used special forbearance for unemployed homeowners since changes to FHA forbearance rules were announced in July last year. The payments covered 6,116 claims filed with HUD under the FHA’s revised special forbearance program from July 2011 through March 2012. The program helps unemployed FHA borrowers stay in their homes while seeking reemployment. Changes to the program require servicers to extend the forbearance period for qualified FHA borrowers from the minimum four months to 12 months. In addition, upfront hurdles were ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is evaluating potential changes to its tough condominium requirements, some of which could be announced soon. A department spokesperson declined to comment on specific requirements that may be included in new guidelines but said the agency is working to respond to industry concerns. Industry observers say the rules, which HUD put in place in 2009, have left many condominium units ineligible for FHA-insured financing. Condominium association boards have been ...

Effective June 2012, Ginnie Mae will provide monthly disclosures about accumulated multiple issuer pool (MIP) activity in terms of dollar amount and number of loans as well as by pool term, pool type and security interest. The information provided will apply to issuances for the current month. The disclosure will provide issuers and investors additional insight into the multiple issuer pools in process. However, the information can change any time until the completion of the MIP process at the end of the month, Ginnie Mae cautioned. A final list will be ...

One of the trickiest challenges presented to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of its project to harmonize the mortgage disclosures consumers receive will be the settlement disclosure, a top official at the CFPB indicated recently. The settlement disclosure “is where we’re in a bit of a difficult situation, because Congress, al-though they directed us to combine the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act disclosures, did not amend the underlying statutes,” said Benjamin Olson, managing counsel in the office of regulations at the CFPB, during a webinar sponsored last...

Even as the Federal Housing Finance Agency deliberates writedowns of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, the agency has agreed to allow the government-sponsored enterprises to participate in a California program that applies principal reduction in modifying distressed loans. The FHFA has confirmed Fannie and Freddie’s participation in the California Housing Finance Agency’s Keep Your Home California Program, a $2 billion foreclosure prevention effort established under the U.S. Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund. Earlier this month, state officials announced they are dropping the requirement from the...

A costly difference of interpretation between the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and Freddie Mac over a pool insurance dispute has prompted the mortgage insurer to file suit against the government-sponsored enterprise and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court of Milwaukee, where the company is based, the legal dispute concerns differing readings of the “aggregate loss limit” for insurance policies MGIC provides on 11 pools of Freddie loans. The aggregate loss limit is about $535 million higher under Freddie’s...

Ally Financial negotiated an $8.7 billion settlement with investors in non-agency MBS issued by Residential Capital before putting the company, one of the pioneers in the securitization of jumbo, Alt A and subprime mortgages, into bankruptcy. Long before ResCap’s bankruptcy filing early this week, trustees for outstanding non-agency MBS had already been instructed by 17 investors to sue Ally Financial for compensation over alleged violations of ResCap representations and warranties. The deal was reached shortly before the filings, according to a source close to the matter. Ally said that some 290 MBS trusts...

A proposal from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to begin disseminating data for agency MBS traded as specified pools could compromise the confidentiality of market participants and discourage them from future participation, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The FINRA wants to implement shorter reporting timeframes for MBS-SP transactions (initially two hours, then one hour), as well as real-time dissemination of trade information. Volume information would be capped at $10 million. Trades above that amount would be displayed as “10+.” “Our dealer and...

A panel of federal regulators told members of the House Financial Services Committee this week that enforcement of securities violations would be greatly hampered if the government was compelled to seek admissions of wrongdoing or liability as a condition of settlement. Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-AL, said the purpose of the hearing was to examine the settlement practices of federal financial regulators, in particular the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has come under public scrutiny after a federal judge last fall rejected the terms of an SEC settlement in lieu of trial that...