FDIC Official Calls for Broader QM Parameters. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig recently came out in support of congressional legislation to expand the kinds of loans that can be deemed qualified mortgages under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. However, with Congress coming back from its annual August recess this week, the biggest hurdle facing such measures may be whether lawmakers feel enough urgency to act by year’s end. Among other provisions, Hoenig called for mortgages held in portfolios of certain banks to be defined as QMs and receive the protections established by the bureau for such mortgages. To qualify, under Hoenig’s proposal, banks would have to be “more traditional” institutions that emphasize the core commercial banking model and ...

M&T Bank Settles Allegations It Used ‘Neighborhood Racial Criteria’ for Mortgage Product. A court approved M&T Bank's settlement with the Fair Housing Justice Center under which the Buffalo, NY-based bank will pay $485,000 while agreeing to revise its residential origination policies. The nonprofit FHJC filed a lawsuit in February after investigating the bank’s “Get Started Program.” The mortgage product is aimed at homes in “majority minority” neighborhoods or in low- or moderate-income areas. The product is for first-time homebuyers and it allows for low downpayments and the ability to finance closing costs. The FHJC found that M&T loan officers discriminated against potential borrowers based on race and national origin, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act. Among other issues, minority ...

Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions in Atlanta hopes to price its first-ever nonprime MBS sometime next week – a $150 million bond issued through Nomura Securities, a top Angel Oak executive told Inside MBS & ABS. Mike Fierman, managing partner and CEO of Angel Oak Companies, an affiliate of the lender, said officials have been on an investor road show the past week or so, crisscrossing the country. “Investors love...

Bond and MBS prices held steady this week, but market watchers expect that volatility, in general, will persist on pricing until the Federal Open Market Committee meets later in the month to discuss the fate of short-term interest rates. Deutsche Bank, among others, predicts that the FOMC will call for a rate hike then, but it isn’t entirely certain given China’s financial problems. If China continues to crater, the Fed could hold off. Others are predicting...

Legacy-era non-agency MBS litigation continues to be a ripe field of opportunity for U.S. regulators and industry attorneys alike, years after the financial crisis and Great Recession ended, thanks to some key recent judicial rulings. Late last month, Judge Alvin Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut gave the green light to the Federal Housing Finance Agency to continue to pursue its claims against the Royal Bank of Scotland. The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alleged that RBS provided misleading statements related to $32.1 billion in RMBS the bank sold to the two government-sponsored enterprises between 2005 and 2008. The thrust of the FHFA’s complaint is...

Federal regulators have implemented a number of rules in recent years aimed at moving banks away from a reliance on credit ratings when making investing decisions. Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stress that if a bank’s management doesn’t have comprehensive understanding regarding a security, the bank shouldn’t invest in the MBS or ABS. “The gist of these new requirements is simple: banks should understand the risks associated with the securities they buy and should have reasonable assurance of receiving scheduled payments of principal and interest,” said Robert Hendricks, capital markets policy analyst at the FDIC. In an FDIC report, Hendricks provided...

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle – and even some regulators – are pushing for legislation to broaden the types of loans that receive protections allotted to qualified mortgages. A number of issues remain in flux, including how widely the expanded QM definition would be applied and whether there is enough urgency to pass a bill before the end of the year. Last week, Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., detailed ...

Lawsuits filed by the city of Miami against Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were revived by an appeals court this week. The fair housing lawsuits allege a decade-long pattern of discriminatory lending that caused the city economic harm. The lawsuits were filed in December 2013. Miami claimed that predatory lending by the banks caused minority-owned properties in the city to fall into unnecessary or premature foreclosure, which deprived Miami of tax revenue and forced the city to spend more on municipal services to combat blight. The city made claims under the Fair Housing Act and state law. The city backed up...

Federal regulators and fair housing advocates are calling for continued vigilance in fair lending with the reappearance of mortgage redlining and loan steering. The return of pre-crisis predatory lending practices, like steering and redlining, pose new challenges to the mortgage industry and to minority communities, which have seen their home equity disappear with the collapse of the housing market, said participants in a fair-lending conference hosted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Credit scores raise...

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council should institute an official transition period to provide lenders greater clarity and certainty in anticipation of the CFPB’s new TILA/RESPA integrated disclosure rule (TRID) slated to take effect Oct. 3, the American Bankers Association said in a letter to the financial regulatory group. The CFPB is one of the regulatory bodies that comprise the FFIEC. “We request that the FFIEC – on behalf of all banking regulators – formally establish a transition period and clarify how regulators will oversee and examine regulated institutions for TRID compliance during this time,” the ABA said in a recent letter to the council. “In so doing, the FFIEC would provide needed certainty to the credit markets and encourage lenders to ...