Trump Administration Staffs up Bureau ‘Landing Team.’ The transition team of the incoming administration of President-elect Trump recently announced the members of its CFPB “landing team,” one of whom is Paul Atkins, currently CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm. Atkins is a former commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission.... House, Senate Re-tool for 115th Congress. Congressional leaders have updated their committee and subcommittee leadership assignments for a new Congress that promises to put more heat than ever on the CFPB, now that a Republican will occupy the White House for the first time since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act and the establishment of the bureau....
NY Acts to Hold Banks and Mortgage Servicers Accountable for Maintaining “Zombie Properties.” The New York Department of Financial Services recently finalized a regulation intended to protect communities from the blight of “zombie properties” by requiring banks and mortgage servicers to report and maintain vacant and abandoned properties.... Mortgage Servicers Face New Licensing Requirement in Kentucky. The Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions has decided to require both master servicers and subservicers to obtain a license as a mortgage loan company with the KDFI if the loans being serviced are secured by residential real property located in the state....
Empirical evidence of the mortgage market’s recovery is still piling up, with the latest quarterly consumer complaint data from the CFPB showing that gripes about home loans fell in most categories tracked, both on a quarterly basis and year over year, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside the CFPB. Consumer criticisms in the fourth quarter fell a solid 15.0 percent from the period ending Sept. 30, 2016. Finger pointing by borrowers fell on a YOY basis as well, but by a smaller 4.5 percent, the data show.With fewer and fewer borrowers underwater or in foreclosure these days, it should be no surprise that complaints about loan modification are down the most [With three exclusive data charts] ...
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently fined HSBC $32.5 million for failure to correct faulty foreclosure practices in a timely manner as per a consent order originally issued back in 2011 to correct practices that harmed borrowers in the wake of the housing market’s collapse. The OCC also said the institution failed to file payment change notices (PCN) that complied with bankruptcy rules, which resulted in roughly $3.5 million in borrower remediation for approximately 1,700 mortgage loan accounts. “The bank’s untimely and missed PCN filing practices did not comply with bankruptcy rules, required the bank to undertake operational enhancements to achieve compliance, and were unsafe and unsound practices,” according to the consent order. The bank neither admitted ...
With increased talk of privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Investors Unite wants reassurance that shareholders will be treated fairly. The GSE shareholders rights trade group said, “Now everybody is talking about ending the conservatorship,” in a recent blog posting. While that may be an exaggeration, since the presidential election there has been a renewed interest in bringing the GSEs out of its eight-plus years conservatorship, where they’ve been since September 2008. Recent talks began with and snowballed after Treasury-secretary designee Steve Mnuchin said that getting the GSEs out of government control would be a top priority for the new presidential administration. And Mnuchin said that he plans to do this “reasonably fast.”
As the guard prepares to change in a week, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in an exit memo released last week that only legislation can comprehensively address “the ongoing shortcomings of the housing finance system.” In the memo, Lew documents the Treasury’s progress over the last eight years and outlines his goals for the future of the department. He said that fixing the housing finance system remains the major unfinished piece of work of post-financial crisis reform. While he said the housing market has improved, Lew acknowledged that many homeowners and neighborhoods continue to struggle. “A starting point for such legislation should be the principles President Obama laid out in 2013, which stressed a clearly-defined role for the...
Moody’s says HAMP Replacement Program Credit Neutral for CRTs. The GSEs’ new Flex Modification foreclosure prevention program that will replace the expired Home Affordable Modification Program has a neutral credit impact on GSE risk-risk transfer deals. Moody’s said that the volume of modifications and the re-default performance under the Flex program will be comparable to modification levels and performance under the current programs. The firm also noted that the new program will not result in increased modification volume. Servicers have until Oct. 1, 2017, to implement the new program.Freddie’s Recent ACIS Transaction. Last week, Freddie Mac announced its last Agency Credit Insurance Structure of 2016 in the form of a $285 million offering. The GSE said it...
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