Some of the largest servicers could be violating fair-lending laws, according to an analysis by a the Government Accountability Office, while an alphabet soup of federal regulators overseeing fair lending issues appears to be treating servicing concerns like a hot potato. In a report issued late last week, the GAO said its analysis of loan-level data for the four largest servicers participating in the Home Affordable Modification Program suggests that there are fair-lending concerns that merit further examination. While the GAO didn’t identify the servicers, the four largest HAMP servicers are Ocwen Loan Servicing, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, according to the Treasury. The GAO found...

Two nonbanks among the top five servicers now control almost 9 percent of the residential receivables market. Should regulators be worried? Should the MBA?

One area on the bureau’s short list is compliance under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

Public mention of the Treasury memo was first made earlier this month by former Solicitor General Ted Olson at a GSE shareholders rights advocacy forum in Washington.

Two Harbors said FHLB membership provides up to $1 billion of uncommitted credit for borrowings.

Despite the slowdown, an estimated 630,000 mortgages were guaranteed by VA in FY 2013 – a record. Wells Fargo was the top VA funder with $14.82 billion. USAA was second.

Mortgage companies with back-office operations overseas don't have to worry about the CFPB examining their off-shore staff, at least not anytime soon.

Just when mortgage lenders thought it was safe to go back in the water, the CFPB revealed a big shark fin earlier this month by indicating it intends to develop additional reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “As Congress required in the Dodd-Frank Act, we are considering proposing rules that would make changes in how financial institutions report their mortgage activity,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. “One of the main purposes of this effort is to gain greater insight into issues about access to credit.”...

As part of the CFPB’s new push for additional reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the bureau, in conjunction with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, has released a new, fairly robust online tool to enable interested parties to explore mortgage data in ways previously unavailable. “Users now have more flexibility in how they sift through the data. They can filter it, download it, create summary tables, and share the results,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The tool uses a format that is...

Mortgage lender representatives urged the CFPB recently to delay its project to address the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process until after its integrated disclosure rule under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act takes effect and is fully digested by the industry. “The new rule is intended to greatly simplify consumer disclosures, eliminate surprises at closing and broadly improve the consumer experience,” said the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable of the...