Lenders pushed back against state regulators that are considering changes to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry licensing forms and the Mortgage Call Report. The State Regulatory Registry, which operates nationwide systems for state regulators, received a total of 11 comments from individuals and organizations regarding a proposal issued in May. Lenders provided a few constructive suggestions along with voicing frustration regarding state regulators’ data collection efforts. Pete Mills, a senior vice president of residential policy and member services at the Mortgage Bankers Association, urged...

After being indicted for loan fraud in 2012, Abacus Federal Savings Bank was acquitted of grand larceny and conspiracy charges last week that stemmed from a case brought by the New York District Attorney’s office that involved Fannie Mae. The small Manhattan-based bank, which primarily serves Chinese-Americans in the New York region, was accused of mortgage fraud and falsifying documents and then selling those faulty mortgages to Fannie from 2005 to 2010. Following a four-month trial and nine days of deliberations, a New York jury acquitted...

Nearly a score of industry trade groups sent a letter this week to the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee, urging them to pass legislation to provide a reasonable hold-harmless period for enforcement of the CFPB’s TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) regulation for lenders trying to do their best to comply. “We appreciate that the bureau indicated it will be sensitive to the progress made by those entities that make good-faith efforts to comply,” the 19 groups said in a letter to Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and Ranking Member Maxine Waters, D-CA. “At the same time, the industry needs...

According to the consent order in the case, Ocwen had a history of ignoring the agency’s document requests...

The survey also found that about 90 percent of loans originated by banks were QM compliant compared to 84 percent last year...

The regulator said Guarantee – which is in the process of liquidating – paid its LOs, in part, based on the interest rate of the loans they were bringing in.

They called on policymakers to “embrace” nonbanks and address unintended regulatory impacts that are seen as driving banks out of portions of the mortgage market.

A statement issued by MBA president David Stevens does not comment on the merits of the two cases but blames the CFPB for issuing LO comp rules that are not clear.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority started publishing pricing data for a broad range of ABS this week in an effort to increase transparency. Industry participants suggest that the new disclosures will prompt a decrease in trading and have some impact on pricing. The ABS pricing details are available through the Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine and include deals issued as 144A private placements. “The dissemination of transaction information in ABS is...

With interest rates rising again, the future looks somewhat cloudy for real estate investment trusts that invest in MBS, a situation that investors have grown accustomed to the past few years. According to figures compiled by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, the 28 mortgage investing REITs tracked by the firm had a combined market capitalization rate of $47.8 billion at the end of May, a slight drop from a year ago when the tally was $49.0 billion. Then again, not all of the 28 are...