August is turning out to be an unfortunate month for WMC Mortgage and Deutsche Bank in terms of continuing legacy MBS litigation, but an auspicious one for Bank of New York Mellon, which won a favorable verdict in a residential MBS case. On Aug. 8, Judge Charles Haight of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut denied defendant WMC Mortgage’s motion for partial summary judgment in Law Debenture Trust Co. of New York v. WMC Mortgage. The case involves a pool of 5,162 residential loans originated by WMC which were securitized in 2006 and sold to the trust for $1 billion, according to the law firm Orrick. The lender was...

Attorneys for Fairholme Funds filed another motion this week requesting to view about 1,500 government documents in a lawsuit challenging the government’s net-worth sweep of profits at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And late last week, the government produced three more documents that were originally classified as “privileged.” In the new motion, the Fairholme attorneys asked the Federal Claims Court to use the “quick peek” procedure for more than 1,000 documents dating back to May 2012. These are among the many documents the plaintiffs say the government is still withholding under the deliberative process and bank examination privileges. It’s...

The Federal Reserve this week released the minutes of the July meeting of its Open Market Committee, providing more detail and color regarding the central bank’s deliberations on shrinking its enormous holdings of agency MBS and the future path and timing of interest rate adjustments. FOMC members started their portfolio deliberations by discussing the appropriate time to start reducing the Fed’s securities holdings, a plan that had been formally announced in June. “Participants generally agreed that, in light of their current assessment of economic conditions and the outlook, it was appropriate to signal that implementation of the program likely would begin relatively soon, absent significant adverse developments in the economy or in financial markets,” according to the minutes. Many members of the committee noted...

According to our calculation, Fannie common now trades at $2.80, a 20.17 percent improvement since the close of 2Q17, while Freddie’s value rose 21.08 percent to $2.70.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s planned review of the ability-to-repay rule prompted comment letters from trade groups representing various industry participants along with individual comment letters from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. The big banks were critical of certain aspects of the ATR rule and requested changes that could increase originations of non-agency mortgages. “The ATR/qualified mortgage rule is not working as desired,” said Michael Weinbach, a ...

Simplifying and aligning the default servicing policies of the conventional conforming and the government-backed mortgage markets would better serve the mortgage industry and homeowners, according to industry experts. In a recent discussion on how regulatory burden and high servicing costs might impede lending, members of the Mortgage Servicing Collaborative agreed on the need for streamlined and harmonized federal, state and agency policies and rules on servicing. Increased regulatory requirements have caused mortgage-servicing costs to skyrocket in recent years, experts said. Even though the quality of servicing has improved, the new regulations are complex and costly, they noted. Multiple pressures placed upon servicers have suppressed mortgage lending, making it harder for borrowers with tainted credit to obtain a mortgage, according to the ...

FHA production increased slightly even as VA originations fell by a larger percentage in the second quarter of 2017, an analysis of the agencies’ lending activities found. FHA ended the quarter with $60.8 billion in forward mortgage endorsements, up 1.8 percent from the previous quarter. In contrast, VA originations declined by 4.9 percent over the same period, closing the second quarter with $40.8 billion. FHA and VA production typically gain share when the purchase-mortgage lending increases. For example, Inside Mortgage Finance reported that purchase mortgages comprised 71.3 percent of loans securitized in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities in 2Q17, compared to 59.9 percent in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS. FHA endorsements over the first half of 2017 totaled $120.6 billion, of which $86.0 billion were purchase loans. This was up 4.8 percent from the same six-month period ... [Charts]

Reverse mortgage lenders are asking FHA to clarify the applicability of state statutes of limitations on collections and foreclosures involving Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. In a comment letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association sought clarification to avoid any potential risk to the department and reverse mortgage lenders. Since federal agencies are not subject to state statutes of limitations, the NRMLA asked the FHA to confirm that HECM loans assigned to HUD are not covered by state statutes of limitations on collections and foreclosure. The trade group also requested FHA to clarify whether HECM regulations and program guidelines preempt any such state law. “Requiring mortgagees to assign loans to HUD and make certifications that such loans are and will be ...

Wells Fargo and PHH Mortgage have reached separate settlements with the Department of Justice and three other federal agencies to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act. The DOJ, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Housing Finance Agency will rake in $182 million from the settlement of lawsuits involving FHA and VA loans, as well as loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wells Fargo denied the allegations in the whistleblower lawsuit but agreed to pay $108 million to resolve the claims. It admitted to no fault or liability. Filed in 2006 and unsealed in 2011, the lawsuit alleged that the bank overcharged veteran borrowers by masking ineligible fees in order to obtain VA guarantees on certain Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loans, or streamlined refi mortgages. At the same time, Wells allegedly falsely certified to the VA that it ...

The Mortgage Research Center, which does business as Veterans United Home Loans and/or VA Mortgage Center, has agreed to pay $1.1 million to New York regulators to resolve allegations of overcharging veterans on loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans United was the second largest VA lender in the country in the second quarter, with a 5.4 percent share of the VA market, according to the Inside FHA/VA Lending database. The settlement agreement is part of a consent order entered into recently by Veterans United with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The settlement stemmed from an investigation which found that the Columbia, MO-based company did not refund “surplus lender credits” on 322 VA loans originated from Jan. 1, 2011, to June 30, 2014. According to the consent order, borrowers obtained a credit from ...