FHA is offering new options to victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as well as California wildfires and subsequent flooding and mudslides to avoid foreclosures. Eligible disaster victims in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, California, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands may get FHA foreclosure relief, which would allow them to remain in their homes and, at the same time, reduce losses to the mortgage insurance fund. FHA has instructed servicers to reach out to the victims with the new option, “Disaster Standalone Partial Claim.” The new option allows an interest-free second loan to cover up to 12 months of missed mortgage payments. The loan is payable only when the borrower sells the home or refinances the mortgage. The expanded loss mitigation will also streamline income documentation and other requirements to expedite relief to struggling homeowners while they are ...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has notified states receiving federal funding for recovery efforts from last year’s disastrous hurricanes to take into account the rising sea level when rebuilding in flood-prone areas. The directive appears to follow Obama-era mandates requiring federally funded infrastructure projects to factor climate change and rising sea level when building in areas that could be vulnerable to flooding. However, six months ago, before Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas, President Trump, a non-believer in climate change, rescinded the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard established by President Obama in 2015. There was concern that things would revert to the pre-hurricane days when federal funds were wasted on bad infrastructure, said Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But HUD is doing the ...
In a new public disclosure, General Electric said it could face legal action from the Justice Department following an investigation into WMC Mortgage, a mortgage firm it once controlled...
The House last week passed a bill that industry participants insist will add stability to the secondary market. It would effectively overturn a 2015 court ruling that has introduced uncertainty for MBS and ABS, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group.
The Securities and Exchange Commission completed an enforcement action last week against Deutsche Bank Securities and a former head trader at the firm regarding sales of commercial MBS between 2011 and 2015.
In direct rebuke to Richard Cordray’s interpretation, the court held that a reasonable payment is bona fide regardless of whether a referral was also involved in the transaction.
Plans at Wells Fargo to issue non-agency mortgage-backed securities in 2017 didn’t come to fruition. But growth limitations recently placed on the bank by the Federal Reserve have prompted speculation that Wells could issue non-agency MBS this year. This month, the Fed issued a cease and desist order that temporarily limits the firm’s maximum total consolidated assets to the level they were as of the end of 2017. The order was one of the last acts of former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who ...
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