The Federal Housing Finance Agency – via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – is preparing new eligibility standards for mortgage-insurance firms and plans to show a first draft of the rules to state insurance regulators, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned. Private MIs may not get a peek at the rules until sometime in March. Also, insurance regulators may be required to sign a “non-disclosure” agreement with the FHFA or the government-sponsored enterprises regarding the content they see. Among other things, the eligibility standards will establish...
The mergers-and-acquisitions market is expected to be robust this year thanks to falling loan production, which likely will force weaker players in the mortgage industry to align with stronger partners. But now there’s another reason why M&A activity could be brisk: new servicing rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to industry officials and Fitch Ratings, new servicing rules will drive up compliance costs for all servicers, but smaller players – including community banks and nonbanks – could see their profits erode as they increase spending to stay compliant. In a new report, Fitch writes...
State attorneys general and officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suggest that their settlement in December with Ocwen Financial doesn’t end their quest to reform the industry. “We are not out of the woods yet, and we will not be until all mortgage servicers understand that they must step up and toe the line,” said Richard Cordray, the director of the CFPB. The top five servicers have now agreed...
When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was working on the definition for qualified mortgages, some warned the regulator that only QMs would be available after the standards took effect. However, with the QM era set to begin Friday, a number of lenders will offer non-QMs even though such originations will come with increased liability. While interest-only mortgages don’t meet QM criteria, the loans will continue to be offered by lenders large and small. The government-sponsored enterprises won’t buy them, so the originations will be left to portfolio lenders and those with non-agency sales outlets. “We will continue making...
With a handful of pivotal mortgage lending and servicing rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau going live at the end of this week, industry representatives have been readying themselves to cross the threshold while not quite certain about how complete compliance is going to be or how much access to mortgage credit might be crimped. Of the four rules that kick in on Jan. 10 – those dealing with ability-to-repay/qualified mortgages, loan originator compensation, mortgage servicing, and high-cost mortgages – clearly the ATR rule continues to consume most of the oxygen in the room. One of the biggest points of uncertainty has to do...
If elected, Savitt hopes to serve on the House Financial Services Committee. A past annual president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, he formed NAIHP five years ago.
The tapering of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing beginning this month will do little to end the advantages agency MBS have over new jumbo MBS.
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