Financial institutions are taking steps to prepare for an increased amount of data they will have to collect and report as a result of the regulatory deluge from the Dodd-Frank Act, according to experts participating in a webinar sponsored by Deloitte & Touche late last week. Organizations are “focused on disclosure, taking inventory of their own rules and regulations and they’re doing a series of different types ...

There is a good chance that criminal charges will be brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against the major mortgage servicers following a nationwide probe into robo-signing and other foreclosure processing issues. Officials representing the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, a broad coalition of federal agencies working with state and local officials, said during a recent hearing in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, that further investigations and prosecutions stemming from ...

Fannie Mae late last week reiterated to lenders its policy on mortgage insurance coverage while it also tweaked its requirements for reporting notifications of MI rescissions, mortgage insurer-initiated cancellations and claim denials. The government-sponsored enterprise’s announcement, published June 30, reminds servicers of their “contractual obligations” to ensure that any MI coverage required by Fannie is maintained. “Mortgage insurance claims must be pursued in a way that will at all times protect Fannie Mae’s ...

The Obama administration needs to move more aggressively than planned if it wants to return the FHA mortgage insurance program to its traditional client base and market size, according to a new analysis by researchers at George Washington University. At a time when many industry and consumer groups are urging policymakers to maintain the status quo so as not to hurt a still fragile housing market, report authors Robert Van Order and Anthony Yezer say FHA loan limits should be ...

The new final rule from the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not require individuals engaged in mortgage loan modifications or working as third-party mod specialists to be li-censed under the Secure and Fair Enforcement of Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008. But the bad news is that the HUD rule doesn’t exempt them either – it pushes the issue off to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rule sets a minimum standard for states to adhere to in order to comply with the SAFE Act in licensing mortgage loan originators who don’t ...

The Department of the Treasury and state banking regulators strenuously objected to a proposed rule issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regarding federal preemption of state consumer financial law even as calls to withdraw the proposal or reopen its comment period mounted. As the comment period ended June 27, the Treasury Department responded unfavorably to the preemption rule proposed by one of its own bureaus, saying that the agency’s approach is incompatible with the federal preemption text of the Dodd-Frank Act and its ...

The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 covers loan originators working for entities that originate FHA or VA mortgage loans, according to a final rule issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under the long-anticipated rule on state compliance with the SAFE Act, HUD clarified that even though the FHA and VA programs were created by federal statute and governed by federal regulations, the loans they insure or guarantee are originated for profit. Since FHA and VA loans are originated in the “commercial context,” the loan originators (LOs) are generally subject to the requirements of...