Borrowers rushing to get their purchase-mortgage applications submitted before FHA’s higher annual mortgage insurance premiums took hold April 1 helped boost total purchase applications last week, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA’s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending March 29 showed a surge in purchase applications for government loans. The surge, fueled mostly by FHA applicants, helped boost the total number of purchase applications received by lenders during the period. “Total purchase applications increased last week, due to an almost ...

Four private mortgage insurance companies this week agreed to pay $15.4 million in penalties to resolve government charges that they improperly paid kickbacks to mortgage lenders for business referrals in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed complaints and proposed consent orders against Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corp., Radian Guaranty, Inc., Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and United Guaranty Corp. for the alleged illegal business practices that contributed to the financial crisis. The CFPB said the MI companies engaged in illegal ...

Fannie Mae ended 2012 with its single best quarterly and yearly profit in company history, prompting the government-sponsored enterprise to predict sustained profits “for the foreseeable future,” without taking into income any of the massive allowance it has built up related to deferred taxes. Fannie reported net income this week of $17.2 billion for 2012, compared to a net loss of $16.9 billion in 2011, with fourth quarter earnings of $7.6 billion. A year earlier, the GSE posted a $2.4 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2011. “We had...

The Treasury Market Practices Group announced last week that a margining recommendation for agency MBS initially set to be implemented in June will be delayed until the end of 2013. The provisions apply to primary dealers working with four broad categories of forward-settling agency MBS transactions as part of an effort to manage counterparty exposures. The implementation date was delayed in response to concerns from market participants. Timothy Cameron, managing director and head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s asset management group, said buy-side participants need to negotiate agreements for each of their accounts, which can include thousands of documents. “It is clear many market participants will not be able...

Late last week, the CFPB issue a final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act’s Regulation Z, stating that the 2009 Credit Card Act’s limits on fees apply only during the first year after an account is opened. The rule reverses a previous interpretation from the Federal Reserve back in 2011 which said that the act’s provisions (which limit fees a card issuer can charge to 25 percent of the account’s credit limit when first opened) also applied to fees charged before the account was opened...

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to launch an industry-wide review of housing counseling agencies, including those approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as other tax-exempt entities that provide mortgage foreclosure assistance, compliance experts warned. In fact, the IRS has started looking at providers that have applied for tax-exempt status in recent months and has denied three organizations in February 2013 alone, according to attorneys with the Washington, DC, law firm Venable. Housing counseling agencies can use the issues raised in the “private letter” rulings as a ...

A federal employee union and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have agreed to implement a seven-day employee furlough because of a severe mandatory reduction in HUD’s budget in FY 2013. The seven furlough days, which also will affect FHA operations, will apply to HUD’s entire 9,100-person work force and will be spread out to one for each pay period beginning May 24. HUD initially proposed a 13-day furlough plan, which was to start May 10, but agreed to reduce it to seven days and to move the start date to May 24. Under an agreement between HUD and the American Federation of Government Employees Council 222, furlough days will occur on ...

Last summer, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an advisory concerning warehouse lines of credit that was all but ignored by most players in the market. That is, until now. In a research note, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said the “new” OCC rules could force Texas Capi-tal Bank to increase the risk weighting of its warehouse lines to 100 percent, from its current designa-tion of 37 percent.

Legislation introduced this week by a bipartisan group of senators would seek to “jumpstart” the stalled effort in Congress to implement legislative reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but industry observers say the measure may also act to hinder cash grabs by government officials when the Treasury Department begins its “sweep” of the GSEs’ profits. The Jumpstart GSE Reform Act – sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, with co-sponsors Sens. Mark Warner, D-VA, David Vitter, R-LA, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA – would prohibit any increase in Fannie’s and Freddie’s guaranty fee from offsetting other government spending. “The reality is that if Congress were to spend g-fee revenue from the GSEs on other programs, reforming these mortgage behemoths would become nearly impossible,” said Corker.

The Treasury Department is on board with a risk-sharing mandate from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that sets a $30 billion goal this year for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That’s the word from FHFA officials who discussed the matter with Inside The GSEs, but who did not want to be identified by name. “Treasury has taken a great interest in these things,” said one FHFA official. “They’re not ignoring what we’re doing.” The Treasury Department did not return telephone calls about the matter.