A careful examination of the big-ticket enforcement actions the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has brought against leading mortgage servicers can help others in the space avoid the same fate and protect their bottom lines, according to top industry legal experts. During an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar earlier this week, Allyson Baker, a former CFPB attorney and partner at the Venable law firm in Washington, DC, discussed the importance of trends seen in a handful of servicing enforcement cases against Ocwen, SunTrust Bank and Flagstar Bank. “I think...

First-time homebuyers could benefit from mortgages with downpayment requirements as low as 3.0 percent, but high fees on such products tend to limit their originations, according to qualitative survey results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The government-sponsored enterprises are set to roll out products that allow combined loan-to-value ratios as high as 97.0 percent, competing with the 96.5 percent combined LTV ratio limit for certain purchase mortgages guaranteed by the FHA. In recent years, the GSEs generally have allowed for combined LTV ratios as high as 95.0 percent. “Agents commonly believe...

Wells Fargo is not expected to take new bids – at least anytime soon – on a highly delinquent $39 billion non-agency servicing portfolio that Ocwen Financial failed to buy because of all the regulatory scrutiny the nonbank is facing. However, servicing advisors who have seen some of the details on the portfolio contend that Wells may eventually try to unload the package next year, but is by no means under the gun to do so. “One thing you have to keep in mind is...

The CMBS market is well known for rating shopping, where issuers will invite up to six CRAs to conduct a preliminary review of an initial asset pool.

The two GSEs have been in conservatorship for six-plus years now, with no legislative solution to their future in sight.

The new bulletin discusses standards and guidelines on verification of disability income, including those under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule.

After a servicing sale closes, the GSEs must monitor each transaction to make sure the transfer of receivables took place in a timely manner and more…

Fannie Mae recently loosened its credit standards on condominium loans. What's next?

In 2015, the team at the GSE common securitization platform will focus on implementation of the remaining software components...

Republicans have never been big fans of the GSEs and there’s plenty of Democrats who aren’t so sure about the government “guaranty” as well...