Most observers don’t think the Obama administration’s proposal to use the FHA program to refinance underwater non-agency mortgage borrowers stands much of a chance on Capitol Hill, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development is moving ahead with a change it can make on its own that’s designed to spur FHA refinance activity. Acting FHA Commissioner Carol Galante announced that the agency is changing its Neighborhood Watch system to exclude streamlined FHA refinance loans from lender performance scoring. A key feature of the online system is a comparison of each lender’s early default rate to the...

State attorneys general and federal officials this week announced a massive legal settlement with five major mortgage servicers, finally concluding a torturous 16-month-long negotiation. Some 49 states – including New York, California and Florida – agreed to the $25 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Ally Bank and Citigroup. The agreement does not provide blanket immunity for the lenders, which can still face criminal charges and are subject to claims over securitization practices and claims brought by individual borrowers. The agreement is based on investigations by...

Industry representatives and members of Congress looked to the role of the appropriations process as House Republicans strengthened their push for greater oversight of and transparency from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing this week to consider separate bills that would change how the CFPB is funded. H.R. 1355, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Transparency Act of 2011, introduced by Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, would remove the CFPB from the Federal Reserve System, where...

A group of 39 GOP U.S. senators indicated late last week that they plan to join a lawsuit brought by business groups challenging the recess appointments Obama made last month, including that of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “American democracy was born out of a rejection of the monarchies of Western Europe, anchored by limited government and separation of powers,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX. “We refuse to stand by as this president arrogantly casts aside our constitution and defies the will of the American people under the election-year guise of defending...

The New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit last Friday against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems and three banks that own major stakes in it, another in a long line of legal assaults on MERS and its users. “MERS members, including defendant servicers, have brought over 13,000 foreclosures against New York homeowners naming MERS as the plaintiff/foreclosing party,” read the lawsuit. “However, MERS often lacked standing to foreclose, and representations in court submissions that MERS owned and/or held the promissory note in such proceedings were often false and deceptive.” The defendant...

The newly announced $25 billion settlement over foreclosure servicing practices is not expected to have much impact on MBS investors because most of the principal reductions that the five banks agreed to make will involve unsecuritized mortgages they hold in portfolio. The settlement involves all states except Oklahoma, two federal agencies and five major servicers, and requires the banks to “work off up to $17 billion in principal reduction and other forms of loan modification relief nationwide,” according to a summary of the agreement. Although the actual settlement had not been released as...

A week after federal and state enforcement agencies launched a residential MBS investigative effort, reports have surfaced that Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are about to be sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold to investors. Officials at the SEC, which never confirms specific Wells Notices of impending legal action, declined to comment on the investigation, as did spokesmen for Ally, Citi and Goldman. Representatives from Bank of America and Deutsche Bank did not...

Housing economists challenged the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s controversial stance against permitting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow principal forgiveness in loan modifications, telling U.S. senators this week that mortgage loan writedowns would go a long way to cure the ongoing housing crash and foreclosure crisis. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi told lawmakers that government policy encouraging more mortgage modifications, particularly those involving “substantial principle writedowns” would...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray gave no indication which way his agency may be leaning in terms of the kind of legal protection the CFPB may provide related to “qualified mortgages” and lender liability when the agency releases its ability-to-repay final rule under the Truth in Lending Act later this year. Appearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee last week, Cordray said, “One of the things we’ve heard most about from institutions is they would like to see this rule – whatever the criteria are – that there be some sort of safe ...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit late last week against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, claiming that their use of MERSCorp’s Mortgage Electronic Registry System resulted in a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings in New York state and federal courts, harming homeowners and undermining the integrity of the judicial foreclosure process. Among its specific accusations, the NY AG’s office says that, out of the 13,000-plus foreclosure actions against New York homeowners in which MERS listed itself as the plaintiff, “in many ...