Supreme Court of the United States.Oral Arguments This Week in RESPA Case. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday, Feb. 21, in Tammy Foret Freeman, et vir, Petitioners v. Quicken Loans, Inc. The central issue is the legitimacy of fee-splitting under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. At the crux of the legal debate is Section 8(b) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, 12 U.S.C. §2607(b), which states that no person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split or percentage of any charge made ...
Activity in the Home Affordable Modification Programs Principal Reduction Alternative is heavily concentrated, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Bank of America and Wells Fargo combined account for 51.4 percent of the non-agency principal reduction mods, based on new disclosures by the Treasury Department. The servicers PRA activity is outsized even compared with their overall non-agency HAMP activity. BofA and Wells combined account for 33.6 percent of active non-agency HAMP mods ... [Includes one data chart]
Housing economists challenged the Federal Housing Finance Agencys controversial stance against permitting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow principal forgiveness in loan modifications, telling U.S. senators this week that mortgage loan writedowns would go a long way to cure the ongoing housing crash and foreclosure crisis. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Moodys Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi told lawmakers that government policy encouraging more mortgage modifications, particularly those involving substantial principle writedowns would...
Days after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray appeared reluctant to commit to publishing a formal regulatory agenda before a key House committee, the bureau turned around last week and quietly issued just such a document, albeit an iteration that did not list key projects under the CFPBs newly expanded powers it acquired with an appointed director. That suggests the agenda was put together prior to Cordrays recess appointment and perhaps without his awareness, some observers suggest; otherwise, surely he would have mentioned it when he was ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released for public comment the eighth iteration of its consumer mortgage disclosure prototype forms, dubbed hemlock and butternut, specifically asking for input as to how the prototypes work with the CFPBs current application disclosure prototype. These prototypes use a format for closing costs thats similar to the format on the initial disclosure to enable the two forms to work well together, the CFPB said. Consumers should be able to see if their final loan terms and costs are different from the numbers they were originally offered ...
Federal Reserve.Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.National Credit Union Administration. Guidance on Junior Liens Reissued. Federally regulated financial institutions have to monitor all credit quality indicators relevant for home loan borrowers, under guidance that was reissued by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the National Credit Union ...
The non-agency portion of the Home Affordable Modification Program is set for significant changes, according to an announcement last week by the Treasury Department. Investors will receive greater incentives for principal reduction mods, eligibility requirements for HAMP will be loosened and the program will be extended through the end of 2013. Implications for agency MBS investors seem limited but are very meaningful for non-agency investors, said analysts at Barclays Capital. Incentive payments to loan owners will triple for principal reduction HAMP mods. Previously, the payments ranged from six cents-on-the-dollar to 18 cents-on-the-dollar ...
Government regulators continue to wrestle with the controversial risk-retention rule mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act that is widely seen as one key to the prospects for reviving the non-agency MBS market. Officials from one of the agencies involved in the rulemaking told attendees at this weeks annual meeting of the American Securitization Forum that regulators are still studying the landslide of comment letters that came in response to a proposed rule published in April 2011. The extended comment period closed in August. It is in the nature of the rulemaking process that an advanced notice of proposed...
Government oversight of mortgage lending has dramatically increased in the last two years, and the current trajectory established by the Dodd-Frank Act suggests things are going to get a lot worse before theyre going to get any better. The Dodd-Frank Act will generate a heavy load of new regulations for the industry to implement, and the process is not yet halfway done, said Rod Alba, senior regulatory counsel at the American Bankers Association, during an Inside Mortgage Finance Publications webinar this week. We are in the midst of at least 24 months worth of overheated regulatory pronouncements,...
The Supreme Court of the United States plans to hear oral arguments late next month in Freeman v. Quicken Loans, a case that could have wide-ranging implications for lenders subject to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The issue before the high court is whether RESPA Section 8(b) 12 USC 2607(b) prohibits a real estate settlement services provider from charging an unearned fee only if the fee is split between two or more parties.The language of that provision of the statute states that no person shall give and no person shall accept any portion, split or ...