The package of government-sponsored enterprise reform legislation introduced into the House Financial Services Committee last week dominated headlines, but sources on Capitol Hill said forthcoming legislation will also aim to tighten FHA underwriting in some manner, continuing to protect the program’s...

Risk-retention requirements proposed by federal regulators last week strongly favor the government-sponsored enterprises over non-agency securitization, according to industry analysts. The pristine mortgages in Redwood Trust’s recent jumbo securitization would not completely meet the standards and the vast majority of... [Includes one graph]

Dissent threatens to split a coalition of federal agencies and 50 state attorneys general over a proposed settlement with major mortgage servicers over improper and abusive servicing practices. As federal agencies and state regulators prepare to meet with mortgage servicers for the first time next week, their unity appeared to fray ...

Mortgage lenders that are still using captive reinsurance should give this business tool a second look in the wake of a tentative $34 million class-action settlement between Bank of America’s Countrywide unit and Pennsylvania borrowers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit gave...

Mortgage lenders may be given a free hand in structuring their retained risk, although how they should do it remains unclear. Regulators are reportedly close to giving lenders more elbow room on risk retention, which may come up for discussion next week when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors holds...

Bureau of Consumer Financial ProtectionTaking Consumer Complaints. The BCFP’s implementation team is seeking comment on receiving and processing consumer complaints, which is one the fledgling agency’s functions when it goes fully operational as scheduled on July 21. The implementation team, which is...

Arizona. The state Senate has passed S.B. 1259, which would require lenders to produce the full chain of title or risk the foreclosure sale being voided. The GOP-sponsored bill passed by a vote of 28-2 and is now being considered in the state House. The purpose of the bill is to require...

Federal regulators are deeply divided on the amount of fines and the scope of procedural changes that should be imposed against major mortgage servicers to settle state and federal claims of fraud and other improprieties in the home foreclosure process. While no settlement agreement has been reached...

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a final rule and sought comment on a proposed rule to revise escrow requirements for first-lien jumbo mortgage loans and first-lien, higher-priced mortgages, respectively. The changes to Regulation Z, which implements...

The House Financial Services Committee intends to conduct a hearing to examine the impact of the Federal Reserve’s recent regulation governing compensation to mortgage loan originators. In its oversight plan for the 112th Congress, the HFSC expressed concern that the Fed’s LO pay rules, which take effect April 1, may have an adverse impact on...