FHA-insured loans accounted for a modest chunk of mortgage-related consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year. According to the CFPB’s annual report on consumer disputes, the bureau received approximately 37,300 mortgage complaints in 2017, 13 percent of which were related to FHA mortgages. Loans with a VA guaranty and FHA-insured reverse mortgages accounted for 4 percent and 2 percent of the complaints, respectively. Conventional home mortgages had the biggest share of mortgage complaints – 48 percent – followed by “other type of mortgage” at 28 percent. Six percent of mortgage complaints were about home-equity loans or home-equity lines of credit. For mortgage complaints, 41 percent involved making payments (such as those involving servicing, escrow accounts and posting of payments), while 37 percent were related to borrowers’ ....

Legislation was introduced this week in the House Financial Services Committee that would strengthen oversight of FHA mortgage servicers to ensure their compliance with the agency’s loss-mitigation requirements. The FHA Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2018 (H.R. 5555) would require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct servicer oversight, including sampling, compliance reviews, and direct information collection from borrowers whose files were sampled. “A decade after the devastating foreclosure crisis, we continue to see significant problems with the servicing of FHA loans that unnecessarily put homeowners at risk of foreclosure,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, ranking member on the committee and sponsor of the bill. Waters said her bill would ensure that FHA servicers help families experiencing financial hardships avoid foreclosure so that they can ...

Lenders will now be able make VA loans to veterans who wish to purchase or refinance a home that needs alteration or repair, under new guidance issued by the VA. According to the VA, it has received inquiries from lenders that have expressed interest in originating and processing loans to finance home alteration and repair. The agency noted that the aging housing stock in the U.S. has spurred an increased demand for such loans. Due to their physical condition, older homes are often sold as “cash or conventional financing,” which immediately excludes VA financing and deprives veterans the opportunity to use their VA benefit. The new policy guidance makes the VA guaranty available to lenders looking to finance home alteration, repair, renovation and improvement. It also allows improvements to be included in the value and completed after the loan is closed. The lender disburses the loan proceeds to the ...

Nomura Securities wants the Supreme Court of the United States to hear its case after losing an appeal in October to overturn an $800 million penalty assessed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The firm argues that the high court should determine whether the Housing and Economic Recovery Act’s extension of the statute of limitations applies to statutes of repose.

The settlement is the first enforcement action by Acting Director Mick Mulvaney since he took over the bureau in late November.

The highest paid Ocwen director last year was Phyllis Caldwell, who took home $372,649. Caldwell is a former Treasury Department official.

Republican congressmen generally agreed with the IG’s recommendations and raised additional concerns about mission creep at Fannie and Freddie…

There are some in the industry who believe the entire subservicing sector is far behind in technology and customer service – and is ripe for a technology disruption of a major kind.

Recent structural changes and new priorities at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will significantly reduce the bureau’s ability to police discriminatory lending, the Brookings Institute said.

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney is considering removing the CFPB complaint database from public view…