Federal regulators issued a document this month clarifying Basel III capital requirements that apply to banks. Among other issues, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency addressed the treatment of certain loan modifications and FHA loans. The capital rules took effect Jan. 1 for most banks, with a phase-in period for many aspects of the rules. The federal regulators said that when a mortgage isn’t in default and ...

Most of Altisource's business is tied to Ocwen, which is in the process of ridding its servicing portfolio of agency loans.

Quicken Loans this week went where no lender in the mortgage industry has gone before: Suing the U.S. government for suggesting it’s been doing a crappy job of originating FHA loans. Its legal action not only caught most of the industry by surprise, but resulted in loud applause from the Mortgage Bankers Association and K&L Gates partner Larry Platt. A number of major lenders have paid...

An anonymous group of veteran players in the mini-correspondent channel is pushing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to update the guidance it issued for the sector last year. The investor group, which purchased more than $8 billion in loans from mini-correspondents in 2014, offered alternative criteria it recommends the CFPB use instead when trying to determine if an entity has in fact made the transition from mortgage broker to correspondent lender. The CFPB issued...

Green Tree Servicing agreed to pay $63 million to settle allegations made by two federal agencies regarding its servicing practices. The settlement includes $48 million in consumer redress and a $15 million civil money penalty. Green Tree did not admit or deny the allegations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission said...

The costs for appraisals for home purchases have increased in recent years, according to some real estate agents responding to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, with blame being placed on appraisal management companies. “Many agents report that appraisal costs have risen and AMCs’ overhead may be responsible,” said Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys. While lenders aren’t required...

A final rule issued this week by federal regulators setting standards for oversight of appraisal management companies goes against the concerns raised by many industry participants. The rule implements standards required by the Dodd-Frank Act, among other issues. The Consumer Mortgage Coalition, the National Association of Appraisal Management Companies and other industry participants had raised concerns about the rule proposed in April 2014. The proposal established minimum standards for AMCs – which are intermediaries between appraisers and lenders – and allowed states to establish requirements that go beyond the minimum standards. The final rule adopts...

Most of Sen. Grassley's inquiry focused on transparency and whether the president invoked executive privilege over some of the documents pertaining to the third amendment to the PSPAs...

The top contributor to the new Credit Suisse jumbo deal is New Penn, which is controlled by MBS co-inventor Lew Ranieri.

DOJ cites an email written by a Quicken divisional vice president for underwriting who brags that the lender has a team that is “responsible to pushback on appraisers questioning their appraised values.”