The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide a transparent process by which interested parties could request a recalculation of the FHA loan limits and present supporting evidence. By statute, maximums for FHA loan limits in high-cost areas were reduced to $625,500 from $729,750 at the beginning of the year for one-unit residential properties, the same maximum loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for similar properties in high-cost areas. The MBA said HUD made further reductions in FHA FY 2014 loan limits in approximately 300 counties and county equivalents across the country, with many experiencing significant reductions. The trade group believes these changes were not required by statute. To the extent that the loan-limit reductions in those areas were discretionary, the MBA strongly urged HUD to moderate its ...

Bank of America and James Nutter & Co. have agreed to indemnify the Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve allegations that they failed to perform due diligence in underwriting Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. An audit of the HECM program by the HUD Office of Inspector General found that the financial institutions allowed 33 HECM borrowers to take out more than one loan, a violation of program requirements. The program requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence. In addition, borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at the same time. In BofA’s case, one borrower obtained two HECM loans on properties she owned in Massachusetts and Florida, both of which she identified as her principal residence. The HUD OIG said there was sufficient information to alert BofA and the underwriter that ...

Beginning June 1, 2014, securitizations backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgages may not include HECM loans that provide for future draws at a fixed rate of interest. Specifically, Ginnie Mae warned that the potentially excessive risk associated with such HECM loans might be more than what the agency could handle in the event of an issuer default. The prohibition applies to fixed-rate HECM loans where the borrower has the option to select a payment plan that allows future advances against the principal limit. These loans give rise to the risk that such advances will become uneconomic should interest rates rise from when the loan is originated, according to Ginnie Mae. The impact of negative spreads between a fixed noted rate and future prevailing rates could be ...

Deficient file documentation is the leading cause of initial “unacceptable” ratings in the FHA’s most recent post-endorsement technical review (PETR) of targeted single-family FHA loans. Published in the March 2014 issue of Lender Insight, review results showed that 50 percent of the 5,504 FHA loans selected for review in the fourth quarter of 2013 had missing or flawed documentation. Of that percentage, 65 percent of loans were rated “unacceptable.” Loans are selected for post-endorsement review based on a risk-targeting methodology and do not reflect the overall FHA portfolio. An “unacceptable” rating indicates that the loan endorsement file had a material defect at the time the loan was endorsed for FHA insurance. Such ratings are upgraded subsequently if the lender provides mitigating documentation. Unacceptable ratings are due to errors or flaws in ...

Ginnie Mae will provide a one-month grace period to April 30, 2014, for issuers to complete the submission of their master agreement to the Master Agreement Management System (MAMS) within the agency’s enterprise portal. The deadline for submission is March 31, 2014. The master agreements must first be accepted by the MAMS before an issuer may request or receive a “Transfer of Issuer Responsibility.” Failure to comply with this requirement could adversely affect the issuer’s ability to obtain commitment authority and to issue new pools or receive pool transfers. Although many issuers have resubmitted their master agreements, some found it difficult to complete the process within the required timeframe, according to Ginnie Mae. Providing a one-month grace period would help issuers to complete their resubmission. Issuers that still experience ...

The FHA has extended the filing deadline for lender recertification to June 9, 2014, to match the agency’s timeline for switching to the Lender Electronic Assessment Portal (LEAP). LEAP is a new system that will serve as a one-stop shop for all lender approval and recertifications. It replaces the current “Lender Approval” and “Cash Flow” web pages in FHA Connection as well as the current system lenders use to submit financial information as part of recertification. LEAP is scheduled to be fully operation this month, although consolidation of Title I and II lender identification numbers has already taken place on March 31. Last year, the FHA issued guidance extending the filing deadline for all lenders with a December 2013 fiscal year end. Although the guidance recommended that lenders be prepared to complete their recertification no later than May 31, it also stated that ...

HMBS Quarterly Issuance Down by 30 Percent. Issuance of securitized Home Equity Conversion Mortgages remained low as HMBS issuers created only $510.1 million in new HMBS pools during March, the third lowest total in almost five years, according to the latest market analysis by New View Advisors. This brought HMBS issuance in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.7 billion, the lowest quarterly total in nearly five years, said NVA. By comparison, HMBS issuance totaled $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2014. 1Q14 has the lowest HMBS issuance since 2Q09, when the program was at its infancy. In March, 86 HMBS pools consisting of 41 original issuances and 45 tail pools were issued. Original HMBS issuances refer to a pool of HECM loans securitized for the first time, while tail HMBS issuances are pools created from the uncertificated portions of HECMs that have ...

Currently, MSRs can only account for 10 percent of Tier I capital, but MBA thinks it should be raised to at least 25 percent for banks, and 50 percent for thrifts and savings and loans.

Roughly 2 percent of depositories said they will cease offering mortgages altogether because of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to repay rule and QM standards.

FHA chief Carol Galante reminded lenders that mortgage premium increases – five hikes from 2008 to 2013 – were necessary to protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and properly price for the risk the government insurer was taking on.