An increase in short-term interest rates will have an outsized impact on commercial MBS among structured finance assets, according to Moody’s Investors Service. In a report released last week, the rating service said higher interest rates will be credit negative for existing deal performance and new issuance for commercial MBS and largely neutral for residential MBS and most ABS sectors. As interest rates rise, Moody’s said term default risk on loans backing new issue commercial MBS will increase because the loans’ debt service coverage ratios will be lower than the DSCRs at the time of origination of loans in outstanding deals. “Rates on loans backing new conduit deals will increase, thereby reducing DSCR in relation to a given property’s cash flow,” the rating service said. “New conduit deals are typically backed by loan pools that were originated no more than ...

The report from Potomac Partners bears the good news about FHA...

FBR Capital Markets analysts said the ruling allows the CFPB and the Department of Justice to retain their use of disparate impact under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act...

For most HELOCs, the OCC said the end-of-draw period means that monthly payments change from interest-only to amortizing...

A few years back, then FHFA Director Ed DeMarco cut the compensation of the CEOs as a response to lawmaker concerns.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also is reviewing LPMI, but from a different angle: RESPA and the "discounting" of such policies…

Late last week, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered some long-sought clarity on the legitimacy of disparate-impact claims brought under the Fair Housing Act in the case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The highest court in the land validated the position of various lower courts, regulatory agencies and administrations over the last four decades that disparate impact is ...

Capital requirements and standards proposed by state regulators for nonbank servicers appear to be unnecessary, according to trade groups representing servicers. State regulators issued the proposal in March, seeking to ensure that nonbanks conduct their servicing operations in a safe and sound manner and have strong consumer protections in place. “It is not clear that nonbank mortgage servicers require a prudential regulatory regime,” a group of 37 state ...

Originations of adjustable-rate mortgages in the past seven years have been well below production seen before the financial crisis. While low interest rates have contributed to limiting originations of ARMs, industry analysts suggest that other factors will continue to constrain ARM production even when interest rates rise. An estimated $41.0 billion in ARMs were originated in the first quarter of 2015, down 10.0 percent from the previous quarter and off ...

Smith said his team has reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed at least nine Ocwen executives...