The FHA will soon begin implementing system enhancements to the Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal to improve its functionality further and to address user feedback. Use of the EAD portal becomes mandatory on June 27, 2016, when appraisers will begin to submit their appraisals electronically to FHA, reducing the time for processing and closing an FHA-insured loan. The FHA will implement the changes on March 14. First, reference to the six-digit alphanumeric “one-time key” used by a mortgagee’s designated EAD administrator to log into the EAD portal will be changed to “appraisal portal one-time key.” References to the key will be revised throughout the EAD portal screens and system-generated messages. The appraisal portal’s one-time key is generated in FHA Connection and is the last step in the initial EAD login process. In addition, users will be given a ...

The FHA’s Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology (HERMIT) system will shift to a new vendor-operated host data center beginning March 21, 2016. Reverse Market Insight (RMI), a provider of data, analysis and portfolio valuation services for the reverse mortgage industry, has been tapped to manage, maintain and operate HERMIT. Launched in October 2012, HERMIT is an online, web-based automated system that monitors and tracks the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio and automates insurance claim payments. HERMIT will shut down temporarily from 7 p.m., March 16, to 8 a.m., March 21, in order to complete the transition. The FHA said there would be no changes to the system’s functionality during transition to the host data center. User IDs and passwords for accessing HERMIT will remain unchanged. Following HERMIT’s transition to the ...

“I think that criticism is badly misplaced,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray during a speech before the Consumer Bankers Association in Phoenix.

A recent federal appeals court ruling that held Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private companies under the False Claims Act, and not government agencies, has stoked speculation about what it means for shareholder lawsuits challenging the Treasury Department’s net-worth sweep of capital from the two government-sponsored enterprises. On Feb. 22, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that claims cannot be brought against the GSEs under the False Claims Act because they are private companies. In United States ex rel. Adams v. Aurora Loan Services, Inc., et al., the government alleged FCA claims against a handful of lenders because of erroneous representations and warranties, similar to a number of FCA lawsuits successfully...

Long-time mortgage veteran Julie Vore, now an originations analyst in the mortgage markets team, research, markets and regulations division at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, recently answered more industry questions about the integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. Speaking during a webinar sponsored by American Mortgage Law Group and The Mortgage Collaborative, Vore elaborated on the most recent TRID-related guidance released by the bureau, a two-page fact sheet on the disclosure of construction and construction-to-permanent loans. “I recently was involved with a group of lenders, and there was heated debate in the construction realm as to whether the best way to disclose a single closed construction loan is with one loan estimate and closing disclosure or with...

In dollars and cents, additional spending at Fannie totaled $726 million over the four-year period, while at Freddie the reading was a more benign $376 million.

Sources close to D’Urso said his termination by Radian was a “total surprise” to him as well.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency cautioned that the pilots are in their early stages...

The market had largely abandoned risky lending products before the QM rule ever kicked in…

Marketplace lenders may want to beef up their compliance staffs: The CFPB is now accepting complaints.