It may take Ginnie Mae a bit longer than expected to make all the accounting corrections necessary before the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general to render a clean opinion on the guarantor’s fiscal 2015 financial statement and its restated financials for FY 2014. In fact, Ginnie might have to make some significant long-term investments to address the IG’s accounting concerns, said Thomas Weakland, acting chief financial officer at Ginnie Mae. The agency may have to spend on new technology and infrastructure, and beef up its staff “spanning multiple years” to remediate all of the IG’s concerns, said Weakland. However, Weakland did not state a timeline for making all the necessary corrections and adjustments. Until the IG is fully satisfied with the restatement, it will continue to withhold an audit opinion. “We recognized some of the efforts made and the constraints that ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new integrated disclosure rule didn’t cause a sig-nificant spike in delayed home sales in October, according to the latest Campbell/Inside MortgageFinance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule took effect near the beginning of October. Many industry participants predicted that the new rule would disrupt mortgage closings ...

With the mortgage lending industry’s use of marketing services agreements under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act likely hanging in the balance, the CFPB detailed its anti-kickback legal arguments against PHH Corp. and its mortgage units in its “reply” brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, filed earlier this month. In PHH Corp., et al., v. CFPB, the first main argument the bureau made is that PHH violated RESPA Section 8(a) because it entered into agreements with mortgage insurers so that whenever an insurer received a referral from PHH, the insurer paid PHH a kickback in the form of premiums for mortgage reinsurance. “PHH thus committed a separate violation every time it accepted a kickback ...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency informed lenders recently it will soon start examining banks for their compliance with the Truth in Lending Act and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, and issued some updated guidance to help institutions get ready. In OCC Bulletin 2015-42, the agency said during initial examinations for compliance with the rule, OCC examiners will be evaluating a bank’s compliance management system and overall efforts to come into compliance, “recognizing the scope and scale of changes necessary for each bank to achieve effective compliance.”Further, the OCC said, “Examiners expect banks to make good faith efforts to comply with the rule’s requirements in a timely manner. Specifically, examiners are considering the bank’s ...

The CFPB continues to see a host of noncompliance issues with mortgage lenders – but some notable improvement on the servicing side of the industry too. According to the CFPB’s latest supervisory highlights report, the bureau cited a range of problems lenders are having originating mortgages. For instance, regulators saw evidence of failing to fully comply with the requirement that charges at settlement not exceed amounts on the good faith estimate by more than specified tolerances. Some lenders also are failing to fully comply with requirements for completion of HUD-1 settlement statements, to provide homeownership counseling disclosures, or to provide accurate loan servicing disclosure statements. Other lenders are not complying with consumer financial information privacy requirements, the report indicated. In other ...

For the second time in four months, the CFPB has rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from the auto dealer industry to make public a number of leaked agency documents that are said to undermine the bureau’s assertions that it is not trying to regulate auto dealers. The CFPB’s latest rejection came in response to a FOIA request filed last month by the National Automobile Dealers Association, asking the CFPB to release internal documents leaked to the news media apparently acknowledging that the agency intended to regulate the auto finance market through enforcement action. Further, the documents are said to have revealed that the bureau eschewed evidence that its methods for estimating disparate impact in the auto finance sector ...

Consumer complaints about debt collectors appear to be improving somewhat, according to the latest analysis by Inside the CFPB of data submitted to the bureau. Gripes were down 9.4 percent during the third quarter, but off a barely perceptible 0.3 percent at the nine-month mark versus a year ago. Many of the top 50 companies ranked by number of complaints saw drops of double digits during the period ending Sept. 30, 2015, whereas a handful of companies saw consumer grumbling rise by triple digits year over year. In some instances, however, both dynamics occurred at the same company, the data show.Complaints about collection attempts were the leading consumer criticism, followed by disclosure verification and communication tactics. Supervisory Illustrations On...

Buyer Agents Report Delays in Closing, Thanks to TRID. One month into the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, some real estate closings are already being affected, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents. The survey went out to brokers across the U.S. and nearly 20 percent said they are already seeing issues, mostly delays in closing. According to one respondent, “Lenders are almost all asking for 45 days to closing versus the previous 30 days.” Another respondent stated, “We’ve been advised to prepare for further delays until everyone has more experience with the new CFPB/TRID regulations.” “At NAEBA, we applaud the CFPB for its efforts ...

Are Home Builders Next on the CFPB’s MSA Hit List? Lender anxiety tied to the CFPB’s crackdown on marketing services agreements is reaching a new fever pitch these days, while spreading to other sectors of the housing finance industry, namely home builders and Realtors. Industry officials interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter, recently said title insurance affiliates owned by Realtors and home builders are a particular area of concern – namely pushing customers into using service providers in which they have an ownership stake. “I’ll tell you where the RESPA [Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act] violation is – it’s pressing customers into using their title company,” said one trade group executive. “The idea is that the consumer gets to pick ...

Facing the possibility of a potential False Claims Act lawsuit, PHH Corp. is reconsidering its participation in the FHA mortgage insurance program. Though PHH’s FHA segment represents only 3 percent of its mortgage volume over the past 12 months, the company will proceed cautiously as it evaluates the risk-adjusted return of FHA products and programs, said Glenn Messina, PHH president and chief executive.Ranked 50th among FHA lenders as of June 30, 2015, PHH expects more regulatory challenges in 2016 as well as rising compliance costs, said Messina during a third-quarter earnings call. In its latest quarterly filing, PHH disclosed receiving a subpoena from the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for documents related to, among other things, FHA loan origination and underwriting practices. Like several other FHA lenders, PHH is ...