The multi-agency final rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act appraisal-related amendments to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act is expected sometime this month, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s semi-annual regulatory agenda. The amendments made by Dodd-Frank to FIRREA require new minimum requirements to be applied by states in the registration, reporting and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). They further require implementing regulations for new quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs) “designed to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimates produced by the valuation models.” The pending regulations also are...

The Treasury Department noted that QRM standards do not include requirements for loan-to-value ratios.

Some 61 percent of mortgage executives believe lenders are overly restrictive with underwriting standards.

Just because a GSE uses a third-party vendor to assess the risk of seller/servicers as counter-parties that doesn’t mean the GSE – or their management – is off the hook if something goes awry.

A new poll from IMFnews and Inside Mortgage Finance suggests that lenders are hardly optimistic that the R&W changes will amount to anything.

Mortgage bankers are concerned about what the CSBS is up to and how binding its recommendations will be.

The original consent order was dated Dec. 5, 2012, establishing the compliance monitor and more.

In the wake of the Federal Reserve’s announced end to its multi-part quantitative easing program, look for private investors to face a number of challenges when it comes to increasing their share of the MBS market, concluded a white paper by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA paper, issued late last week, noted there is no single player waiting in the wings able to pick up the slack when the Fed relinquishes its role as the dominant purchaser of agency MBS. “Many of the potential private investors face...

The Obama administration noted this week that it is less than keen on the idea of taking up an outgoing Democrat senator’s call to end the six-plus year conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Last week, Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, suggested the GSEs’ conservatorship be ended if legislative reform is not forthcoming.

Fewer than 100 financial institutions could be adversely affected by a proposed Federal Housing Finance Agency rule to tweak membership criteria for the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, the agency’s head told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee last week. In his first oversight hearing appearance since assuming office in January, FHFA Director Mel Watt said the agency’s “preliminary review” has found of the 7,500 FHLBank member institutions less than 100 may potentially be negatively impacted.