In response to the suit, a Chase spokesman said, “We approved Ms. Wasko for a loan modification in 2010, but she never accepted it."

Mortgage lenders and other financial services providers are up in arms about a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal to allow consumers to post narrative complaints about companies in the agency’s online complaint database. The bureau wants to expand the current database to include “unstructured consumer complaint narrative data.” A consumer who submits a complaint will be given the opportunity to check a consent box giving the bureau permission to publish his or her narrative. Where the consumer provides consent to publish the narrative, the related company will be given...

A federal judge last week granted limited discovery to a hedge fund representing a group of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders as they challenge the government’s “net worth sweep” of their profits. But the court will keep a tight lid on public access to the documents in a nod to the government’s claim that a leak could have dire economic consequences on the mortgage market. Fairholme Capital Management has been pushing hard for discovery and access to internal government documents since the shareholder filed suit last summer demanding that the Treasury Department void its August 2012 Third Amendment to its preferred stock purchase agreement with Fannie and Freddie. In her ruling, Judge Margaret Sweeney of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims was...

Or perhaps the FHA is concerned that the private mortgage insurance industry will continue to gain market share at its expense?

New issuance of non-mortgage ABS dropped slightly during the second quarter of 2014 from the robust levels recorded in the first quarter of 2014, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. A total of $49.14 billion of non-mortgage ABS were issued during the April-to-June cycle, an 8.0 percent decline from the first quarter of 2014. But new issuance remained...[Includes three data charts]

Subprime auto lending is just about back to the levels seen before the financial crisis, with increased ABS issuance volumes, somewhat higher credit losses and more credit enhancement to offset declining ABS credit quality, according to new research from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. While newer subprime auto ABS have more credit risk, ratings are expected to remain stable. During an S&P webinar this week, Amy Martin, a senior director at the rating service, pointed out...

The conditional default rate, or annualized liquidations, of non-agency MBS loans rose 20 basis points to 4.92 percent in the second quarter, after declining for seven consecutive quarters from 9.76 percent in the second quarter of 2012, Fitch Ratings reported this week. “The recent turnaround in the trend can be partly attributed to a growing portion of bank-held real estate owned properties, which typically liquidate much faster than those that are still in the foreclosure process,” said Fitch. The rate of completed foreclosures to REO property has trended higher for four consecutive quarters. The previous decline in the CDR was driven...

Mortgage industry representatives are quite leery about the CFPB proposal. The comment period ends August 22.

One critic of the report on nonbank risk had this to say: “It’s just ridiculous what they [the IG] get away with. There’s risk in every business. Don’t they get it?”

Criticisms about servicing seem to be stubbornly resistant to much improvement, however, hovering in the 3,000 to 4,000 range for the last six quarters.