The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to review a dispute over closing fees in a move that may resolve a potentially entrenched circuit court conflict over the scope of the Real Estate Settlement Practices Act prohibition against unearned fees. At issue is RESPA Section 8(b), which provides that “[n]o person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split or percentage of any charge made or received for the rendering of a real estate settlement service in connection with a transaction involving a federally related mortgage loan other than for services actually performed.” As the U.S. government...

Mortgage servicing shops should soon expect extra-special scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and perhaps even a visit by bureau examiners as part of a servicer supervision strategy announced late last week. “Mortgage servicing has a huge impact on consumers and is a priority for the CFPB,” said Raj Date, special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the CFPB. “The mortgage servicing market has been bogged down by widespread reports of pervasive and profound consumer protection problems. We are going to take a close and measured look at whether servicers are following the law.” The CFPB has indicated that...

The Obama administration’s Housing Scorecard for September paints a reasonably rosy picture of efforts to help troubled homeowners and future market prospects. With record low mortgage interest rates, housing affordability increased modestly. But the number of new default notices rose from 59,500 in August to 78,900, which is still well below the 96,500 level of a year ago. Notably, sales of real estate owned properties were down this period. Preliminary numbers from July 2011 show that there were 46,200 REO sales, as opposed to 62,200 in June and 61,800 a year ago. New home sales were down slightly in...

The ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is calling on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to “give serious consideration” to shuttering Fannie Mae’s Retained Attorney Network, but not before answering questions and providing documents about the FHFA’s oversight of the program.

Any changes that would restrict membership or narrow the Federal Home Loan Banks’ mission should come first from Congress not by administrative fiat, Bank officials told House members this week.FHLBank of Dallas Chairman Lee Gibson testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that explicit Congressional guidance is both necessary and proper before any fundamental alteration of the FHLBank system is imposed.

Despite the sound and fury from publicly peeved House Democrats directed at Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco, including calls for him to step aside, the consensus among industry insiders and those in the know on Capitol Hill is – good luck finding anyone else willing or able to jumpstart the underperforming GSE refinance plan while obeying the FHFA’s restrictive regulatory mandate.

The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants the Federal Housing Finance Agency to explain why it hired two outside law firms in a massive legal action to recover losses suffered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on their investments in non-agency MBS. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, wrote FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco on Sept. 29 asking why the agency hired outside counsel from Quinn Emanuel & Sullivan and from Kasowitz Benson Torres & Freidman to initiate lawsuits against financial institutions and how much the agency is paying them. Issa posed detailed questions and requested documents regarding...

The Securities and Exchange Commission has made a good bit of progress in updating its proposal for shelf eligibility conditions for ABS in light of industry comments and the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. However, there are still numerous areas that concern major players in the mortgage finance industry. A number of commenters took issue with the SEC’s proposal to impose an additional executive officer certification requirement. The agency originally proposed requiring the issuer to file an exhibit to the registration statement consisting of a certification of the chief executive officer of the depositor that, to his or her knowledge, “the securitized assets backing the issue have...

A ruling by a federal district court in Richmond awarding more than $40 million to a mortgage lender for covered losses should compel private mortgage insurers to be more circumspect about their MI agreements, according to industry attorneys. American International Group, parent company of United Guaranty Residential Insurance Co. of North Carolina, is appealing the court’s ruling that it pay SunTrust Mortgage more than $34.0 million for covered losses, $6.0 million in stipulated interest and about $5.4 million in legal fees and costs. Joseph Norton, AIG spokesman, said the insurer has appealed the decision to the...

Negotiations among major banks and state attorneys general to settle problems in foreclosure servicing practices reached a one-year anniversary this week with little apparent progress over the key issue of how much litigation relief the lenders will gain from the deal. “We worked out a tremendous amount of the settlement and gotten a lot done,” said a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has been spearheading the negotiation on behalf of the states. However, he disputed applying the word “imminent,” which some bankers had used, to describe when the settlement might be finalized. “Let’s not jump...