Two federal banking regulators have raised concerns about risks associated with nonbanks gaining market share in the mortgage industry. In a report published this week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said banks are loosening mortgage underwriting standards in response to “intense competition” from nonbanks. The OCC cited higher thresholds for back-end debt-to-income ratios, higher acceptable loan-to-value ratios and lower downpayment requirements. The trends were ...

The CFPB under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has initiated a number of civil investigative demands relating to mortgage servicing. Some new CIDs described the purpose of investigations more precisely than prior ones.

Some enforcement actions against mortgage companies are expected in the future, which could further indicate CFPB’s enforcement strategy for the mortgage industry.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently announced two new participants in the state’s regulatory sandbox for fintech companies. On the federal level, the CFPB expects to do more to encourage financial innovation.

The Community Mortgage Lenders of America has asked the CFPB to exempt smaller independent mortgage bankers from examinations or audits. The CFPB currently has active examinations for IMBs.

The FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is generally healthy but for its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, according to the latest FHA audit of the MMIF. In its 2018 report to Congress this week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development had good and bad news regarding the financial condition of the insurance fund. The good news is that the economic value of the MMIF, which backs the FHA’s single-family loan programs, increased to $34.7 billion in fiscal 2018 from $26.7 billion a year ago. Total capital resources rose to $49.2 billion from $40.9 billion during the same period. For the fourth consecutive year, the fund exceeded its statutory capital reserve ratio of 2.00 percent. The ratio rose to 2.76 percent in 2018 from 2.18 percent last year. Premium reductions, had they been in effect, would have reduced the fund’s economic net worth and dropped its capital ratio, industry ...

The FHA is recommending a statutory change to strengthen the Mortgagee Review Board’s authority in lender enforcement. The agency discussed the merits of enhancing MRB’s powers in a 2018 audit report on the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. While the goal of a stronger MRB is not new, it has taken on a new urgency in discussions between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice regarding the use of the False Claims Act in FHA enforcement. The DOJ and HUD have used the statute to pursue lenders that have inflicted millions of dollars in losses on FHA due to misrepresentation, carelessness and generally sloppy underwriting. Lenders, on the other hand, have complained about the agencies’ indiscriminate use of the FCA against even the slightest technical error. The FCA and its treble-damages provisions have squeezed billions of dollars ...

Increasingly worried about the financial condition of its largest nonbank issuers amid declining market conditions, Ginnie Mae in late October shot off a liquidity letter to 14 companies, asking them to develop contingency plans. The identity of the firms was not revealed to Inside FHA/VA Lending, but it’s no secret which companies rank among the top echelon of issuer/servicers. The five largest nonbank Ginnie MBS servicers as of Sept. 30 are PennyMac Financial Services, Lakeview Loan Servicing, Freedom Mortgage, Quicken Loans and Mr. Cooper. According to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by this publication, Ginnie wants the companies to develop strategies to right-size their operations. One of the agency’s goals is to lay the groundwork for financial stress tests that all issuer/servicers eventually must meet. Ginnie expects to sit down with the executive management teams of the ...

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney is perceived as someone who’s taking a softer touch on enforcement matters than his predecessor, but nonbank mortgage originators are still being examined at a regular clip, according to industry attorneys As for how many lenders are being examined each year, that’s a different matter. The agency, as a practice, does not disclose those figures. “We’ve had a significant number of nonbank clients get examined by the CFPB ...

Lenders no longer need to start complying with the CFPB’s payday-lending rule on Aug. 19, 2019, a judge ruled. In an unexpected development, Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Austin Division last week reversed his prior orders that denied the request to delay the compliance date of the payday rule. The case was filed by two industry groups – Community Financial Services Association of America and Consumer Service Alliance of Texas ...