Search engine giant Google recently launched a new mortgage comparison tool that allows borrowers and lenders to search for the lowest rates, a development that will be carefully watched for the simple reason that, well, it’s Google. The mortgage tool is a part of Google Compare, a service that allows consumers to compare options for various products, such as credit cards and auto insurance. Though the effort is branded with Google’s name, the company has teamed up with Zillow and LendingTree to introduce this service. Compare allows...

Moody's said the results suggest that some lenders are having difficulty complying with the new TRID rules, a credit negative...

HUD actually offers an appeal process where lenders can ask for a loan limit increase for their county...

Slip, sliding away: commercial banks and loans-serviced-for others...

The mortgage industry has notched one modest victory on Capitol Hill and continues to hope for more as lawmakers try to wrap up a spending bill for the government’s 2016 fiscal year. The victory is a new process for banks and others to petition the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to designate an area as “rural” or underserved for the purposes of the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. More flexible mortgage products, such as balloon loans, are permitted in such markets. The change was included...

Mortgage trade groups submitted a strongly worded brief last week calling for an order by the Federal Communications Commission to be overturned. In June, the FCC issued an omnibus declaratory ruling and order involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The order placed restrictions on auto-dialed calls to cell phones. Violators of the TCPA can be subject to fines of $500 per phone call. A challenge to the FCC’s order led by ACA International is set...

Comments last week by a high-ranking official at the Treasury Department suggested that the Treasury was working toward making servicing standards in the Home Affordable Modification Program permanent. However, a source with knowledge of the Treasury’s efforts suggested that any continuation of HAMP servicing standards would be voluntary. Treasury Counselor Antonio Weiss said the Treasury has recently held several conversations with stakeholders to find common ground to continue the standardization and transparency that HAMP has brought to mortgage servicing. “Chief among these reforms are...

Look for new FHLB membership rules from the FHFA by February 2016...

More evidence that the government has a hard time holding on to victories in subprime-related mortgage cases...

The TRID rule delays loan closings by at least 11 days at this shop...