Ginnie Mae this week announced the full automation of Platinum securities processing and issuance – a key step in modernizing the agency’s outdated technology and infrastructure. Automation went into effect in mid-July and nearly $1 billion of the Platinum pools have been processed through the MyGinnieMae portal, the agency said in a statement. MyGinnieMae is a self-servicing portal that connects users and enables collaboration and the sharing of organizational knowledge, the agency explained. The year-to-date volume for Platinum mortgage-backed securities is $6.1 billion. Ginnie’s Multiclass Securities Program allows participating issuers to pool some of their MBS into a single Platinum trust, which issues securities based on the pool. A Platinum security is designed to improve liquidity of Ginnie MBS through trades or use in structured finance and repurchase transactions. Previously, Platinum products were ...

The private mortgage insurance industry urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week to consider including the qualified-mortgage standards of the FHA, VA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its assessment of the ability-to-repay/QM rule. In a comment letter, industry trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers said it would be impossible to perform a full assessment of the ATR/QM rule without considering the different federal agency QM rules. If it does not expand the scope of its assessment, the CFPB should at least consider the impact the rules have on consumers in relation to the agency QM rules. In May, the CFPB notified stakeholders of its plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATR/QM rule in terms of its benefits and costs. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, which established new standards for mortgage lending, including requiring lenders to assess consumers’ ability to repay. The statute also established a class of “qualified mortgage” loans that cannot have certain risky product features and are presumed to comply with the ATR requirement.

NewLeaf Wholesale has announced Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) guidelines for its FHA and VA mortgage products. PACE financing allows homeowners to retrofit their homes to make them more energy-efficient. The homeowner pays the loan as part of their property tax bill. In some states, PACE liens have superior status over all other liens, including a mortgage loan. A PACE assessment is a debt of property, where the obligation is tied to the property as opposed to the property owner. Hence, when the property is sold the new owner assumes the PACE lien. Last year, the FHA and VA issued guidance for approving purchase and refinance of mortgaged properties with PACE liens provided certain requirements are met. One requirement is that past due PACE loan amounts retain a first-lien position and this has raised some concern among industry groups that are opposed to ...

A property management contractor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has agreed to pay $4.3 million to resolve allegations that it billed the agency for FHA-related work it did not perform in violation of the federal False Claims Act. Cityside Management Corp. of Manchester, NH, allegedly failed to inspect the work of third-party vendors that it hired to perform termite inspections, treatments and repairs on repossessed houses in HUD’s real estate-owned inventory, as required by its contract with HUD. HUD’s inspector general investigated the case and referred it to the Department of Justice. Following the financial crisis, HUD held title to a large number of foreclosed homes acquired by borrowers with FHA financing. HUD contracted with various field service managers, including Cityside, to prepare the REO properties for resale. According to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeking public comment as well as approval from the Office of Management and Budget for a number of new or expired data collections relating to key FHA programs and issues. Out for a 30-day comment period are proposed data collections relating to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, condominium project approval, claims and conveyance, and property inspection and preservation. Specifically, HUD has asked OMB to reinstate currently approved information collection, which is necessary to screen HECM applications to protect the FHA insurance fund, consumers and taxpayers. HUD also wants OMB approval to extend the forms used to determine the eligibility of borrowers and mortgage transactions for FHA insurance. In addition, HUD’s HECM counseling form was revised to include a property address line for purchase transactions and ...

“The research will inform the CFPB and assist it in developing recommendations to streamline and improve the rules governing the mortgage industry and, more specifically, the ATR/QM rule,” said the CMC.

September 30 isn't far away...

The clock is ticking on the effective date of a host of new data collection and reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and mortgage lenders are still waiting for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to complete some components of the rule necessary for full compliance. For this reason, the regulator should delay mandatory compliance much later than the scheduled January 2018 implementation date, industry trade groups said. “Although we greatly appreciate the CFPB’s work to facilitate implementation of this major data collection and reporting rule, the CFPB’s regulatory process and technological framework for this rule are still incomplete,” lender representatives said in a letter this week to the agency. Proposed amendments have not been finalized...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generated a combined $4.86 billion in net income during the second quarter of 2017, down a modest 2.4 percent from the first three months of the year, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of earnings reports released this week. The two government-sponsored enterprises have racked up $9.85 billion in net income through the first six months of the year, more than double their combined earnings for the same period in 2016. In the first quarter of last year, interest rate volatility yielded significant accounting losses on their hedges, which suppressed net income at Fannie and produced a net loss at Freddie. Freddie officials said...

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prepares to begin assessing its ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, national representatives of the mortgage industry and other financial services participants this week urged the regulator to deal with what’s known as the “GSE patch.” The patch provides a temporary safe harbor for mortgages eligible to be sold to the government-sponsored enterprises that have debt-to-income ratios that exceed 43 percent, the maximum allowed under the ATR rule. The Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable noted...