Consumer advocates are calling on the Obama administration to extend the Home Affordable Modification Program beyond the end of this year. While HAMP is far from meeting performance goals set by the administration, consumer advocates claim the program is favorable to proprietary loan modifications completed by servicers. “Extending the HAMP program for several years – or, at a minimum, for one year – would greatly assist the housing market in general and neighborhoods most affected by high foreclosure rates in particular by helping more homeowners avoid foreclosure,” 36 consumer groups, including the Center for Responsible Lending and the National Consumer Law Center, said in a recent letter to Jacob Lew, secretary of the Treasury Department. In January 2012, the Obama administration announced...

Two major auto dealer trade groups have some serious objections to the guidance the CFPB put out last month on auto lending, particularly taking issue with whether the CFPB’s position on dealer rate participation is going to make much difference in helping car buyers. The National Automobile Dealers Association and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers said the guidance issued by the bureau attempts to force auto finance sources into changing the way they compensate dealers without any indication that...

Reaction to a report about Obama administration efforts to get banks to increase their purchase mortgage lending, particularly through the FHA, has ranged from supportive to dire warnings of déjà vu. Apparently, administration officials are trying to push banks to make more loans to qualified lower-income borrowers as well as minority and first-time homebuyers who have been shut out of the mortgage market because of stringent credit overlays. The report, which ran in the April 2 Washington Post, described the targeted borrowers as “people with weaker credit,” which, for some, conjures up the ...

The FHA is seeking comment on a proposal to change the period for reviewing loans for direct endorsement from pre- to post-closing in order to increase the number of acceptable loans and, therefore, reduce any potential risk to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Under the proposal, a lender applying for unconditional direct endorsement authority would be required to submit the necessary loan files only after closing. After determining that the mortgage is acceptable and meets all FHA requirements, the agency would notify the lender that the loan has been endorsed. Current regulations provide for ...

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 ...