Allegations in an impending government MBS fraud case against Moody’s Corp. will likely mirror allegations of fraud and misrepresentation in a 2013 civil suit against Standard & Poor’s, according to industry observers. Moody’s disclosed the expected case in a recent filing of third-quarter earnings results with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the credit rating agency, lawsuits are likely pending from both the Department of Justice and state attorneys general over ratings of MBS in the years leading up to the financial crisis. In a letter dated Sept. 29, 2016, the DOJ informed...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposal to clarify a number of aspects of its TRID disclosure rule does not adequately resolve most of the non-agency secondary mortgage market’s concerns about legal liability, Pacific Investment Management Company said in a recent comment letter to the CFPB. The regulation was designed to harmonize consumer mortgage disclosures, but its unintended consequences have caused big problems in the non-agency secondary market. “The [TRID] rules have raised...
The GSEs said treating items like payoffs, holdbacks and principal curtailments as closing costs in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s disclosures would just confuse borrowers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac submitted comments to the CFPB last week in response to the bureau’s proposed amendments to the integrated disclosure requirements under the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The comments focused primarily on aspects of the proposed rule that may potentially affect the Uniform Closing Dataset developed by the GSEs. The GSEs disagreed with the proposed rule’s plan to lump non-closing cost fees under...
The Cato Institute recently filed an amicus brief challenging the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s denial of compensation benefits to a former Freddie Mac CFO at the start of the conservatorship. The FHFA terminated Anthony Piszel two weeks after the government took over the GSEs in September 2008. The primary issue was whether a government prohibition on making golden parachute (severance) payments to terminated Freddie employees was illegal or not. Piszel appealed a judgment from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissing his complaint that Freddie breached its contract and owed him payment for his golden parachute compensation.
Some leading mortgage technology vendors told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau they are concerned about the resources that will be required to implement the changes the bureau wants to make to its integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. In a comment letter to the CFPB regarding its proposed rule to clarify a number of aspects of the TRID regulation, the Mortgage Vendor Regulatory Work Group raised concerns about software implementation resources, including ...
Fairholme Files Motion to Force Government to Produce Docs ASAP. Plaintiffs in Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, filed an emergency enforcement motion this week arguing that the government is purposely taking too long to produce documents and requesting unnecessary extensions. “The defendant has repeatedly delayed complying with the court’s order,” said Fairholme in the court documents. The judge gave the government until Nov. 1 to produce the documents. Freddie prices $217M K-deal. Freddie Mac priced a new offering of Structured Pass-Through Certificates (K Certificates) that are backed by underlying collateral consisting of supplemental multifamily mortgages. The company expects to issue approximately $217 million in K Certificates, which...
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