Recent circuit court rulings may bolster FHA lenders’ defense against the government’s heavy use of the False Claims Act in FHA lending cases, according to industry attorneys. In the years following the financial crisis, the Department of Justice and the relators bar have used the FCA aggressively to target banks and nonbank mortgage lenders for losses incurred by FHA due to poor underwriting and false certifications. The DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have recovered billions of dollars through settlements with various mortgage lenders and servicers, using increasingly creative theories of liability to hold them responsible for FHA losses. This week, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, accusing Guild Mortgage of improper origination and underwriting of FHA-insured mortgage loans from January 2006 through December 2011. As in ...

There are important details in the recent M&T Bank settlement with the Department of Justice and in this week’s announced filing of a lawsuit against Guild Mortgage that could help lenders avoid a potential false claims lawsuit, according to industry observers. The government’s complaints against the two FHA lenders were brought under the False Claims Act, which penalizes acts that intend to defraud the government and taxpayers. The government has been using this powerful statutory tool in the mortgage arena in its attempt to recover FHA losses arising from fraud and noncompliance with agency requirements. As in previous FCA cases against FHA lenders, both M&T Bank and Guild Mortgage were accused of false certification, lax underwriting, poor quality control, failure to review early payment defaults, and failure to self-report deficient loans and remediate problems in a timely manner. In addition, the ...

Trade groups representing lenders, homebuilders and appraisers have asked Congress to hold a hearing this year on the future of appraisal regulation.In a joint letter, five industry groups urged the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to reevaluate oversight of the appraisal industry and the current federal regulatory structure for real estate appraisal.The committee last held an appraisal oversight hearing in 2004. Federal appraisal regulations have been untouched since the enactment of the Federal Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, the trade groups noted. In addition, the groups asked that both federal and state responsibilities be reassessed to see if they continue to serve consumers and market participants well, as well as promote competition in the marketplace. In addition to federal regulation, states regulate appraisers as well. The groups want to know from Congress whether federal oversight of appraisers is still necessary.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued new guidance and some servicing reminders in connection with mobile-home foreclosures, consent judgments, servicer transfers, liquidation appraisal fees and others.VA servicers must specifically refer to the mobile home in foreclosure declaration documents to ensure that both the home and the land are properly foreclosed, the VA said. Many states require two separate foreclosure procedures for every transaction – one to foreclose the interest on the land and the other to foreclose on the title of the mobile home. The VA said foreclosure on the title of the mobile home may have to be filed with state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). When a VA loan on a home on wheels is referred to foreclosure, the servicer must inform the foreclosing attorney that it is a mobile home and whether a DMV filing is required. The VA will reconvey the mobile home to the ...

HUD Sends Final Condominium Rule to OMB for Clearance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has sent a final rule to the Office of Management and Budget that would make it easier for borrowers to obtain FHA financing for certified condominium units. Once issued, the final rule will replace temporary guidance which HUD issued in November last year to ease FHA’s condo approval process. The move is aimed at increasing affordable housing options for first-time and low-income homebuyers. The final rule is expected to reflect measures in the interim guidance, including modification of the requirements for condo project recertification, revised calculation of FHA’s required ownership-occupancy percentage, and expansion of eligible condo-project insurance coverages. IG Scrutinizes HUD Oversight of SFHAs’ Downpayment Assistance Programs. Residential lenders that rely on ...

Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group surveyed senior mortgage executives earlier this year and confirmed that lenders are still facing challenges in complying with the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID, according to new findings released by the government-sponsored enterprise last week. The controversial rule integrates the consumer disclosure requirements under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. According to Sheila Teimourian, vice president and deputy counsel at Fannie, more than three-quarters of the lenders surveyed indicated that the two biggest challenges were managing or coordinating with third-party technology vendors and communicating with key players, such as the buyer, seller and loan officer. About eight in 10 of those who cited coordinating with ...

Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service believe that the Structured Finance Industry Group’s draft proposal on the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule, otherwise known as TRID, generally is up to the task of addressing the relevant risks for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), notwithstanding the uncertainty associated with the pending clarifying rulemaking from the bureau. The rule merges the mortgage disclosures mandated by the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “SFIG’s draft proposal to standardize the framework for reviewing and grading loans for TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule compliance is adequate to identify those compliance risks that are likely to cause losses to RMBS trusts, aside from one grading provision with which we disagree,” said Moody’s Credit ...

Last week, in another apparent attempt to provide the mortgage lending industry with a bit more clarity when it comes to its TRID rule, the CFPB published on its website annotated versions of the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure that provide citations to the disclosure provisions in Chapter 2 of TILA referenced in the rule. However, neither of the two documents, which only number 14 pages between the two of them, appear to go anywhere near providing the kind of clarity the industry continues to hope for.According to Kristie Kully and David Tallman, both partners at the Mayer Brown law firm, these so-called “mapping forms” are unfortunately hamstrung by such extensive disclaimers that the bureau might as well have ...

More homebuyers are reviewing their mortgage documents prior to their real estate closing under the new disclosure regime brought into the marketplace by the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule, according to the results of a new closing survey by the American Land Title Association. However, there are still issues related to better educating consumers and in terms of the industry’s compliance. “While there remain challenges to complying with the regulation, title and settlement agents went to great lengths to prepare and train staff about the new process,” said Michelle Korsmo, ALTA’s chief executive officer. “The hard work of these professionals paid off as our survey found that 92 percent of surveyed homebuyers are taking time to review their mortgage documents before ...

Mortgage lending continues to be a key priority for the CFPB’s Office of Fair Lending for supervision and enforcement, particularly Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data integrity and potential fair lending risks in the areas of redlining, underwriting and pricing, the bureau said in a new report. Last year, the bureau brought to an end two important public enforcement actions that had to do with mortgage lending. The first was a redlining case against Hudson City Savings Bank, which was required to pay almost $33 million in direct loan subsidies, funding for community programs and outreach, and a civil penalty. In this case, the CFPB accused Hudson City of providing unequal access to credit by structuring its business to avoid providing ...