It could cost Goldman Sachs between $800 million and $1.25 billion to resolve government claims that it sold faulty mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac leading up to the financial crisis, according to recent reports. Goldman Sachs is currently negotiating with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has recovered approximately $16.1 billion in agreements with other banks with respect to legacy MBS sold to the GSEs.In September 2011, the FHFA filed 18 separate lawsuits against some of the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of misrepresenting some $180 billion in toxic subprime MBS.

Multiple news organizations reported on Wednesday that Bank of America and the Department of Justice are on the verge of agreeing to a settlement valued in excess of $16 billion that would bring to a close mortgage claims stemming from the lead-up to the financial crisis.

Morgan Stanley is set to issue its first jumbo mortgage-backed security since the financial crisis.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae each recorded double-digit increases in single-family business in July, marking the fourth straight monthly gain, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, an affiliated newsletter. The three produced $85.3 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, an 11.6 percent increase from June’s volume. The biggest increase was at Fannie, where production was up 12.6 percent for the month. The steady gains in production starting in April have not been...

The New York Department of Financial Services said it has concerns that certain nonbank servicers are using complex arrangements with affiliates to side-step borrower protections in force-placed insurance. Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky detailed what he called a “troubling” scheme between Ocwen Financial and a “related party,” Altisource Portfolio Solutions. “This complex arrangement appears designed to funnel as much as $65 million in fees annually from already-distressed homeowners to Altisource for minimal work,” Lawsky said in a letter this week to Timothy Hayes, Ocwen’s general counsel. According to the NYDFS, Ocwen recently implemented...

The Consumer Financial Potection Bureau has been asked to make certain clarifications to the mortgage servicing rules that took effect early this year amid growing industry concern over the high cost of compliance. In a recent letter to the bureau, the American Bankers Association asked the agency to clarify the application of the “120-day rule,” which prohibits servicers from sending notice or filing for foreclosure unless the borrower is 120 days or more behind on the mortgage payment; requirement for periodic statements for charge-offs; and publication of an interim final rule providing bankrupt borrowers limited exemptions from the servicing rules. Complying with the servicing rules is...

Five years after the first round of loan modifications began in April 2009 under the Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program, 32,111 loans are scheduled for their first interest rate resets this October. The impact of this first wave is expected to be limited. But in each of the next successive four years, HAMP resets will reach into six-figure territory, and by the time the smoke clears, upwards of 800,000 loans will face multiple interest rate tests. “The HAMP resets will be...

The American Bankers Association told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that its members are working hard to refine their implementation of the bureau’s new mortgage servicing rules, but have bumped into a handful of questions and concerns they’d like the agency to address via regulatory guidance or amendment.

Essex Bank launched a wholesale group while Live Well Financial plans to hire more than 300 loan officers.

Mortgage lenders are getting weary of the seemingly never-ending supply of new regulations and proposals coming from the CFPB – with the latest being last month’s issuance of the bureau’s proposed rulemaking to ratchet up lender reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Lenders of all size are concerned that the proposal goes beyond what is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and means increased compliance costs that will be passed onto consumers. And representatives of smaller institutions fear they will once again be set at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis larger lenders. Additionally, consumer data privacy considerations have emerged as another concern. The bureau, for its part, pitched the proposal as a way to improve ...