The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has joined four other circuits in raising the bar for arguing government cases under the federal False Claims Act, potentially making it harder for the government or whistleblowers to pursue such claims against FHA lenders.

State regulators are increasingly requiring investors in mortgage servicing rights to get servicer li-censes even if they don’t perform any loan administration functions, according to industry lawyers.

New York financial services regulators have ordered PHH Mortgage to pay $119,000 in penalties for failing to maintain a vacant and abandoned property in violation of state’s “zombie” foreclosure law.

Washington Analysis believes the FHFA/Treasury move is a “clear positive for shareholders in the GSEs, particularly holders of junior preferred shares..."

Marc Savitt, who runs The Mortgage Center, Martinsburg, WV, called the technology snafu a “big deal,” adding: “It’s taking weeks to receive we got in days.”

The FHFA noted that divergence in prepayment rates could occur if the GSEs fail to align programs, policies, and practices…

Initial capitalization rates for new secondary market guarantors may not be as steep as some might think…

The state AGs expressed their concern over statements that Mulvaney has made about the role of the agency, particularly when he called it a “joke…”

The legal wheels continue to turn in the personal efforts of CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English to overturn President Trump’s appointment of Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to serve simultaneously as acting director of the bureau. More activity is slated this week before Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier this year. Additional legal briefs are due and a hearing has been scheduled. Despite losing in her bid for a temporary restraining order, English has since filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent defendants Trump and Mulvaney from “appointing, causing the appointment of, or recognizing the appointment of an acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection ...

When Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney assumed control of the CFPB as acting director last month, he suggested he would like to see the bureau be less adversarial towards the financial services industry and be more accommodating. Since then, the bureau under Mulvaney’s directorship has pulled in its claws somewhat in a few enforcement actions, at least one of which is mortgage related. In this particular case, back in the spring of 2015, the CFPB sued Ohio-based Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Loan Payment Administration, and their owner, Daniel Lipsky, in federal district court. The regulator had accused them of misrepresenting the interest savings consumers would achieve through a biweekly mortgage payment program and misleading consumers about its cost....