The mortgage servicing rule proposed earlier this year by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could easily be exploited to bring any foreclosure proceeding to a grinding halt, according to a leading mortgage industry attorney. If the rule is promulgated as currently written, that could cause mortgage lenders, who are already skittish about future losses, buyback demands and a host of other pending regulations, to pull back even further when it comes to providing mortgage credit. “The consequence of these regulations is to create...

Some mortgage lenders will be able to develop and test, on a limited basis, their own consumer disclosures, under a proposed policy issued last week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The disclosures would have to be approved by the bureau before being used. “The bureau believes that there may be significant opportunities to enhance consumer protection by facilitating innovation in financial products and services and enabling companies to research informative, cost-effective disclosures,” the CFPB said. “The bureau also recognizes that in-market testing, involving companies and consumers in real world situations, may offer particularly valuable information with which to improve disclosure rules and model forms.” The Dodd-Frank Act gave...

The highly anticipated ability-to-repay rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to perpetuate the status quo in the MBS market, with nearly all the action taking place at Ginnie Mae and the government-sponsored enterprises, according to speakers at a panel discussion hosted by the American Securitization Forum this week. The rule, which will provide legal protection for lenders that originate home loans meeting its “qualified mortgage” definition, will also likely continue the stream of plain vanilla mortgages that currently populate agency MBS. Edward Mills, a research analyst and senior vice president at FBR Capital Markets, suggested...

The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an interpretation clarifying commodity pool treatment for certain securitizations and a no-action letter providing additional relief for certain legacy securitization entities. Specifically, the letter explains when exclusion from commodity pool regulation for certain securitization vehicles that do not meet any of the criteria set forth in an October 2012 no-action letter is appropriate. It also provides relief for certain securitization vehicles formed before Oct. 12, 2012. In the October no-action letter, the CFTC spelled out...

Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will carry two key “unintended consequences” for the structured finance industry should it be implemented in its current form, a trade group representative warned lawmakers this week. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, American Securitization Forum Executive Director Tom Deutsch said that Title VII’s treatment of commodity pools and margin requirements triggers two potential “compliance challenges” for some parties in securitization transactions that may hurt all of the beneficiaries of the deal. “We would not have expected...

Two separate white papers from industry trade groups on reform of the government-sponsored enterprises call for a strong government role to provide stability and liquidity in multifamily mortgage finance. The Mortgage Bankers Association called for a system of private capital finance for multifamily housing, with a focus primarily on securitization and the federal government serving as a catastrophic insurer. The program would be funded through risk-based premiums paid by the entities that securitize the loans, according to Brian Stoffers, president of CBRE Debt and Equity Finance. “We recognize...

Analysts expect the U.S. economic recovery to continue on a slow, weak path into 2013 with the potential for a new recession that could weaken the residential MBS market. At Standard & Poor’s, analysts predict a “slow and uneven” economic recovery with a 15 percent to 20 percent chance of another recession that would be less severe than the 2008-2009 financial crisis but potent enough to sap the MBS market. S&P assumes a reversal in home prices and unemployment rising to near 9 percent in 2013, which could hamper borrower capacity to make their mortgage payments. Overall, S&P’s outlook for the single-family MBS market is...

Democrats are making another attempt to require the forgiveness of principal on delinquent mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the White House and lawmakers are in talks to avoid the pending fiscal cliff. This week a group of 18 House Democrats dispatched a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders of both parties urging them to expand assistance to borrowers as part of any tax increase and spending cut resolution package. “Given the clear benefits of providing assistance to underwater borrowers, as well as the significant savings for the American taxpayers, we believe that provisions expanding such assistance should be part of any deal to resolve the fiscal cliff,” the members wrote. “At a minimum, such legislation should require that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offer principal reduction loan modifications to borrowers who are net present value positive.”

In what has become an annual tradition, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each announced last week that all foreclosure-related evictions of single-family and two-to-four unit properties are suspended nationwide until after the New Year. “We are instructing our foreclosure attorneys to suspend pending eviction lockouts on foreclosed homes in order to provide a greater measure of certainty to families during the holiday season,” said Tracy Mooney, Freddie’s senior vice president of servicing and REO.