Many stakeholders are still in the dark with unanswered questions despite efforts by senior staff attorneys of the Federal Reserve to explain the complex provisions and issues arising from a final rule on loan originator compensation. Paul Mondor and Nikita Pastor, attorneys with the Fed’s Consumer and Community Affairs Division, which wrote...

Dissent threatens to split a coalition of federal agencies and 50 state attorneys general over a proposed settlement with major mortgage servicers over improper and abusive servicing practices. As federal agencies and state regulators prepare to meet with mortgage servicers for the first time next week, their unity appeared to fray ...

Mortgage lenders that are still using captive reinsurance should give this business tool a second look in the wake of a tentative $34 million class-action settlement between Bank of America’s Countrywide unit and Pennsylvania borrowers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit gave...

The mortgage industry scored a victory recently after a Michigan jury issued a unanimous verdict for Quicken Loans in an overtime lawsuit that has been pending since May 2004. The jury in Henry v. Quicken Loans vindicated the lender after finding that the company had fully complied...

Mortgage lenders may be given a free hand in structuring their retained risk, although how they should do it remains unclear. Regulators are reportedly close to giving lenders more elbow room on risk retention, which may come up for discussion next week when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors holds...

With the implementation of the loan originator compensation rule just around the corner, mortgage brokers are putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to delay the rule. The latest industry move is a letter sent by the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals to...

Virginia. The state assembly passed legislation on March 15 expanding the acceptance of electronic signatures in the state. The new law provides that financial disclosure forms, lobbyist registration statements and notary applications for recommission may be signed...

Bureau of Consumer Financial ProtectionTaking Consumer Complaints. The BCFP’s implementation team is seeking comment on receiving and processing consumer complaints, which is one the fledgling agency’s functions when it goes fully operational as scheduled on July 21. The implementation team, which is...

Similar lawsuits seeking to stop the implementation and enforcement of the Federal Reserve’s final rule prohibiting certain payments to mortgage loan originators (MLO) have been filed in federal district court in Washington, DC. In recent filings, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers and the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals sought...

Discussion over the size of civil fines to be imposed on mortgage servicers continues in the wake of a draft term sheet of the settlement agreement proposed by state attorneys general that was floated last week. A spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said...